Finalist
Rob Barlow
Summary of work
He has made it a personal credo to use the channels available to him to assist in the betterment of people’s health and champion the voices of those who have been previously ignored or overlooked. His significant achievements include debunking dangerous myths around aspirin use in the elderly’ encouraging one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to better embrace the patient voice and cutting through the noise to put hearing loss firmly on the map.
This determination extends outside the realms of the office too, where he is a passionate advocate of communications as a tool for driving societal change. In this capacity he has most recently supported, on a pro bono basis, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords by providing him with a social media presence through which he has been able to grow and develop his audience outside the Palace of Westminster. Coinciding with the ongoing Brexit debates, this has helped him to navigate and influence one of the most important communications challenges of our generation.
Judges’ comments
Rob was clear, articulate, engaging and likeable. He had a calm manner and provided well thought through answers to surprise questions. He had real gravitas and a real team player. The judges are excited to see how he develops over the next few years.
