‘How will I know you?’
‘Oh I’ll probably be wearing black,’ says Angie Moxham as we arrange to
meet in the hotel lobby. Moxham, ready to return to Le Fevre
Communications next week, says she usually wears black. It’s part of her
‘rock’n’roll’ image.
Formerly associate director at Le Fevre, Moxham spent only two months as
Superdrug’s head of corporate affairs, before being lured back by Joy Le
Fevre with a promotion and a stake in the company.
Moxham looks pretty cool even in the functional environs of
Hammersmith’s Novotel, although she does appear to have chosen fruit
juice rather than Jack Daniels.
She found her brief affair with Superdrug enjoyable, if a little
frustrating. Having encouraged the company to ban Vogue during the
‘superwaif’ controversy, one gets the feeling she wanted the company to
be more ‘ballsy’ in its approach to campaigning issues. Was she a little
naive?
Bill Jones, MD of Lexis PR and Superdrug’s adviser for four years, says:
‘Angie’s a strong woman with her own opinions and doesn’t take any
bullshit. But she’s fair and listens. She was a good recruitment
decision for Superdrug, but didn’t have the patience for too many rubber
stamps.’
Moxham says a major factor in her decision to join the retailer was
marketing director Steven Round: ‘We clicked straight away. I’d been
through a tough year at Le Fevre and wanted to try something different.
Steve’s description of the role sounded exciting.’
She remained close friends with Joy Le Fevre - they even went on holiday
together - and it was when they were having a beer a few weeks ago that
Le Fevre tempted her back.
Teeside-born Moxham is an open book. She talks freely about an affair
with her tutor while studying English at Oxford. ‘I still didn’t get a
first,’ she grins.
Moxham spent a term teaching at a public school before writing
commercials for independent radio. She became a local radio journalist,
working for three stations in three years. Then, after just losing out
for a job at Radio One, Moxham decided to go into PR.
Two years at Oxford Health Public Relations saw her involved in
strategic communications for Broadmoor high security hospital, consumer
education on sex, HIV and Aids, and a broad range of work for Oxford
Regional Health Authority. She says: ‘I enjoyed the work but the NHS was
becoming a political football and after the Conservative election
victory in 1992, morale collapsed.’
Meanwhile, Moxham had met Le Fevre and says she realised her PR
naievety. After a brief spell at Oxford Economic Research Associates,
she joined the agency as account manager.
Her campaigns have included the Enlightened Tobacco Company’s Death
Cigarettes, which built a considerable media fan club and was
shortlisted for a PR Week Award.
So will her job change as MD? Moxham says: ‘Joy will still be hands on
but she wants someone else to take the reins. My priorities are to
consolidate the team and develop accounts we enjoy, particularly health
and beauty, the sexy end of IT, and entertainment.’
Moxham has many contacts in the music biz. She does PR for the group
Marillion and is a friend of those ‘men-in-black’ the Stranglers.
Describing herself as ‘the girl next door’, Moxham does not mince her
words and is no less reticent about the PR industry: ‘I can’t stand the
corporate cowboys who get picked by clients because of their name and
then use junior staff to run the accounts.’
She adds: ‘There’s a lot of talk about how PR should be taken seriously
at board level, but if people aren’t doing good work what do you
expect?’
It becomes clear that Superdrug was the wrong prescription for Moxham
and that she is a consultancy animal at heart. ‘I need a fast pace and
the drug of national coverage, otherwise I feel redundant,’ she says.
HIGHLIGHTS
1990 Senior public relations officer, Oxford Health PR
1992 Corporate Comms Manager, Oxford Economic Research
1993 Associate director, Le Fevre Communications
June 1996 - August 1996 Head of Communications, Superdrug
