Who We Are

Nick Garbutt  |  Managing Director

Nick Garbutt, managing director of ASITIS is acknowledged by the media as the PR expert in Northern Ireland. He writes a weekly column for the News Letter on PR and news management and is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio Ulster, contributing to the flagship weekly discussion programme Seven Days and Talkback.

He is also Ireland’s leading crisis communications’ specialist. Nick handled the communications for the £26 Million Northern Bank robbery –at the time the largest cash robbery in history.

He is a former editor of the Irish News and deputy editor of the Belfast Telegraph. Nick is a great strategic thinker whose calm intelligence is highly valued by clients. He is a law graduate from Oriel College, Oxford University.

Barry Turley  |  Director of Public Affairs

Barry is one of Northern Ireland’s leading public affairs consultants. A co-founder of ASITIS Consulting, Barry is passionate and wholehearted about his work - and he gets amazing results.

He ran the hugely successful campaign to cap the industrial rate for Northern Ireland Manufacturing, which yielded a change in fiscal policy worth £50 million per year, saving jobs and giving struggling businesses a helping hand.

He is widely respected across the Northern and Southern Irish media with ten years’ experience as a broadcast journalist and producer for both the BBC and RTE.

Barry has an MSSc in Irish Politics and History at the Queen’s University Belfast.

Jenni Barkley  |  Senior Consultant

Jenni is one of those people who gets things done. She has outstanding organisational skills and enjoys excellent relationships with clients, journalists, suppliers and our political contacts.

For Jenni success is all about winning: winning great coverage; winning new business for clients; winning campaigns. And that’s exactly how it should be, because effective communications is about securing results. She has also been involved in event management and public affairs campaigns and regularly liaises with the local and national press whilst commissioning photography and promotional material for clients.
Jenni is a graduate in English and Hispanic Studies at the Queen’s University, Belfast. She has completed the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Diploma in Public Relations.


John Davison  |  Consultant

John epitomises the versatility that is at the heart of ASITIS. He is able to combine public relations with strategic public affairs campaigns. He is proving to be a very articulate advocate for clients and is a familiar and popular figure at Stormont.

He is also a very accomplished film-maker and combines his advocacy role with developing our podcasting and media training facilities.

John is a Theology graduate from the University of St Andrews.

Des Stephens  |  Associate Consultant

Des Stephens is one of Northern Ireland’s leading planning experts with more than 40 years experience as a former Divisional Planning Manager in the Planning Service (DOE) and Director of Regional Planning (DRD).

He is a member of the General Assembly of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and former chairman of local N. Ireland Branch of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

He has experience of negotiating policy guidance through local elected Assembly committees, lobbying both Direct Rule and devolved Ministers and Secretary of State.

Geoff Hill  |  Associate Consultant

Geoff Hill is a critically acclaimed author and award-winning feature and travel writer based in Belfast, where he is features editor of the News Letter, one of the world's oldest newspapers.

He's either won or been shortlisted for a UK travel writer of the year award nine times. He's also a former Irish travel writer of the year and a former Mexican Government European travel writer of the year and in 2005 was given a Golden Pen award by the Croatian Tourist Board for the best worldwide feature or broadcast on Zagreb.

Geoff is a tutor on our writing courses.

Ian Sansom  |  Associate Consultant

Dr Ian Sansom was educated at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He is a former Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and is the current BBC Writer in Residence at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast.

He is the author of the non-fiction book, The Truth About Babies (2002), the novel Ring Road (2004), and the Mobile Library detective series, The Mobile Library: The Case of the Missing Books (2006), and The Mobile Library: Mr Dixon Disappears (2006) and The Mobile Library: The Delegates’ Choice (forthcoming 2008). He is a founder and editor of the magazine The Enthusiast, whose publications include The Enthusiast Almanack (2006) and The Enthusiast Field Guide to Poetry (2007).

Ian runs our business and speech writing courses.

Karen Ireland  |  Associate Consultant

Karen Ireland is one of Northern Ireland’s leading lifestyle and consumer communications’ specialists.

She has a wealth of experience spanning more than 15 years in journalism and more latterly in consumer PR both North and South. Previously, a senior feature’s writer on the Belfast Telegraph, Karen was responsible for writing the stories behind the news and interviewing everyone from leading local politicians to pop stars and national celebrities.

Mandi Millar  |  Associate Consultant

Mandi Millar is one of Northern Ireland’s most respected journalists with more than 20 years’ experience. Her name is synonymous with property and lifestyle journalism.

The former editor of the Belfast Telegraph’s Homefinder supplement, she more recently worked as a consultant in the re-launch of the News Letter’s Property Today platform and also has a regular lifestyle and property slot on a number of local radio stations.

Paul Cooke  |  Associate Consultant

Paul Cooke is one of Ireland’s best known and most accomplished change management experts who has won a major international award for his work. He is the current vice chairman of the Association of Project Management in Northern Ireland.

His most recent assignments include: The provision of programme management office consultancy services to the Northern Ireland Civil Service Reform and Public Sector Reform Programmes; Working as an ICT consultant on behalf of Invest NI, clients include O’Neill’s Sportswear, Irwin’s Bakery, Huhtamaki; and working as a Programme Management consultant on a review of the business operations of the Marketing, Recruitment and Communications Directorate in Queen’s University Belfast.

Paul has previously worked in Danske Bank Development, National Australia Group and Northern Bank, where he has successfully implemented business strategies and delivered a wide range of business and technology projects / programmes. This includes the Migration of Danske Bank systems into Northern Bank and National Irish Bank.

Sean Lynch  |  Associate Consultant

Sean Lynch is one of Ireland’s leading design consultants and typographical experts. .

He has spent 18 years in the Graphic Design industry, growing from Junior Designer to Creative Director in Belfast, London and Amsterdam. He holds a British Design Council Award and has studied under many noted authorities on typography and design - graduating from the prestigious Department of Typography and Graphic Communication in Reading, Berkshire.

Sean has a broad spectrum of interests in the publishing arena and runs his own publishing house, producing collectors’ pieces for the American and European market. While managing agency clients over the years Sean is expertly versed in all aspects of visual and graphic design - from branding and corporate brand management to design for print in all its guises including packaging.

More recently Sean has been consulting on design projects for publishers in the United States, Sweden, England and the Republic of Ireland.