You can tell a sector has come of age when it begins to spawn a
second generation of PR professionals. During this year’s round of
graduate recruitment interviews, A Plus’s Jonathan Simnett found himself
interviewing a young Cambridge graduate with the rather familiar surname
of Hibbitt and an uncanny insight into the hi-tech sector.
’I received a call from a head hunter who said I have this girl who is
very bright, and I think her mother is quite high up in PR.’ Sure enough
Claire Hibbitt turned out to be a dead ringer for her mother, Tari
Hibbitt, head of European technology at Edelman.
’I decided not to be put off by the small fact that her mother is a
senior competitor,’ says Simnett.
Hibbitt who is currently living at home with her mother is no doubt
going to have to learn to keep her own counsel. ’When I go home and she
asks what sort of day I have had, I will just have to answer yes or no.
The last thing I expected to be doing is working in direct competition
with my mother,’ says Hibbitt Jr.