Steve is co-founder and CEO of Creative Concern. He specialises in ethical and sustainability issues, integrated campaigns, city strategies, brand development and creating strange installations out of trees, lights and beautiful type. Particular areas of expertise include climate change, place making, transport, food issues and the natural environment.

He is the Chair of Manchester's Climate Change Steering Group and helped edit the city's climate change action plan: A Certain Future. He is a trustee of the Community Forests Trust, former Chair of the Northwest Forestry Forum and on the advisory board of Salford University’s centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures. He was formerly Communications Director at Sustainability Northwest and Head of Campaigns at the Vegetarian Society of the UK.

As Creative Concern’s Production Manager, Lindsey coordinates everything to do with print and production. Working in the sector since 2002, she has a wealth of knowledge of the processes involved.

With Creative Concern’s ethos of environmentally sound production, Lindsey ensures that the materials used and the production methods employed cause minimal damage to the environment while still resulting in a quality finish.

During her time at Creative Concern, Margaret has planned and delivered key note speaker events, PR strategies and press trips across the whole range of our clients.

Margaret previously worked in Manchester City Council‘s press office and has a good knowledge of the public sector. She also worked as the regional media contact for the inaugural Manchester International Festival in 2007. She has experience of promoting events, writing copy, planning and delivering PR strategies and media relations. Margaret trained as a journalist at Liverpool Community College and worked for several years as a reporter on local newspapers.

Chris is managing director of Creative Concern. A former BBC television researcher and a trained TV director, he has also worked as communications manager for Groundwork Northwest, as marketing manager for a £25 million business environment programme, and as Head of Public Affairs for the Vegetarian Society. Chris has also worked as a press officer and brings a wealth of experience in all forms of communications including video production, media relations, strategic planning, print management and website development.
 
Chris is a co-founder of Creative Concern. The idea for the company was conceived with company CEO Steve Connor during a business trip to the Ukraine.

Since joining us in 2007, Neil’s projects have included work for the Lake District National Park Authority, the Beatles Story, IPAF, Co-operatives UK, Natural Economy Northwest and the Eden River Trust.

Neil graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University with a first class degree in Graphic Arts and Design and brings a wealth of experience to Creative Concern, from working on concept-driven, mixed-media branding and advertising design for a range of sectors, including leisure, education, private and government funded.

A self-motivated team member with fifteen years’ experience as a freelance journalist covering film, music and the wider arts, Richard has worked with and for some of the most interesting and challenging clients in the UK. From SMEs and the public sector through to multinationals he’s enjoyed creating media interest in new, interesting and innovative ways for all his clients.

Before joining us he delivered successful cross platform PR campaigns for the £1bn Liverpool ONE urban regeneration project, ITV’s Big Clean Up campaign, The Quays Partnership (an umbrella tourism directive between Imperial War Museum North, The Lowry Arts Centre and Old Trafford cricket ground) and now brings this wealth of expertise to create compelling PR campaigns for our clients.

After graduating in 2001 with an HND in Typographic Design from the London College of Printing, Mandy worked at London-based concept-driven agency hey moscow for over five years. As part of a close-knit design team, she worked on everything from small-scale projects to large outdoor advertising campaigns for mainly public sector clients.

Moving to Manchester in 2007, Mandy worked at Manchester City Council, producing a wide range of materials for both the council and associated bodies, before joining the team at Creative Concern.

Whilst overseeing all aspects of Creative Concern's creative output Rob's role is also to initiate and stimulate creative ideas for and from everyone involved in the creative process.

Rob originally qualified in product design, has been an Art Director in a photographic studio and gained valuable commercial experience working for several years designing and art directing for various International blue chip brands. Prior to joining Creative Concern he worked as a freelance designer with a wide client base and a portfolio stretching from consumer FMCG packaging to music industry projects for the likes of Sony Music.

Clare brings over 20 years experience as an office/finance manager and accountant in a range of organisations. Now at Creative Concern, her management skills prove invaluable in the running of the company.

With a wide range of responsibilities, including business development, finance and human resources, Clare also leads on the development of the Environment Business Pledge, Quality Management System and the Production Management System.

Experienced in marketing and public relations and with strong knowledge of the environmental and regeneration sector, Faith currently manages several Creative Concern accounts, specialising in the natural environment and forestry sector.

Faith joined the team after working with Red Rose Forest, Greater Manchester’s Community Forest as their Marketing Manager. This experience gave her a broad experience of managing and delivering all aspects of communications – especially brand development, strategic marketing and campaign development.

Claire is part of our in house film crew, primarily working as sound recordist and second camera operator. She is involved in all aspects of pre-production including concepts, production planning and co-ordination, as well as post production duties such as editing, data and file management and archiving. When she's not busy doing all of that, Claire also manages our clients' online video presence (Youtube and vimeo).

Claire is the person to contact if you want to know more about working with us on your next film project.

Abby is the newest member of our design team. Originally hailing from the other side of the Pennines in Sheffield, Abby is a recent graduate of the Manchester School of Art, being awarded a first class degree in Design and Art Direction.

She’s now getting stuck in to a whole range of our clients’ work, from the BBC to IPAF, Riverside to Co-operatives Fortnight.

Liz graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2006 with first class honours in Design and Art Direction.

Before joining Creative Concern in 2008, she worked for a small magazine publishing company as an in-house designer working on the editorial layouts, adverts and branding across several titles

Sophie joined Creative Concern in 2008 as Junior Advocate, and has since become an Advocate in her own right. She specialises in arts and culture accounts, working namely with Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Museum on a daily basis. She has also supported on a variety of copy-led materials. She has written case studies, press releases, copy for targeted emails and newsletter articles for a number of different clients and projects, and has worked closely with Creative Concern’s PR department on a number of campaigns.

A BA Hons English Language and Literature graduate, Sophie has also studied proofreading through the Publishing Training Centre and has passed their distance learning course, Basic Proofreading.

Since joining Creative Concern in 2005, Rebecca has honed her skills as a copywriter. Her strong writing skills and versatility have seen her work with almost all our clients.

A varied portfolio, she is responsible for the writing, editing and proofreading across our whole range of specialisms including climate change, sustainability, culture, tourism, community campaigns and regeneration. So, whether it's developing copy lines and a tone of voice for a new behavioural change campaign or editing the latest city strategy, she works with both the advocacy and creative teams to come up with the best solution.

Jo is a research professional responsible for information gathering, interpretation and analysis. Her insatiable appetite for information means she leaves no stone unturned when working on the research that goes into all our projects. 

Jo has a BSc in Environmental Studies and a Masters of Research in the Built Environment, which specialised in waste management and examination of the internet as a tool to promote proactive environmental behaviour.

As Senior Designer at Creative Concern, Helen has worked with Peter Saville on Manchester’s Original Modern brand, which included the Bridgewater Street tunnel light installation; the supplement style ‘Manchester International’ and Manchester Forward for Marketing Manchester; branding of the Brockholes visitor attraction; and the identity for the You Can Foster campaign.

Before joining us in 2004, Helen spent several years working as a freelance designer for the private and public sectors, producing design and advertising work for high street retailers, universities and public health campaigns, and marketing materials for several Northwest arts organisations including Manchester Camerata Orchestra and Buxton Opera House.

Andrew has spent over a decade building websites. He mainly exists in the nebulous zone between front-end design and back-end programming, but can survive comfortably at both extremes. HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, Flash and customizing Drupal are his primary skills.

Andrew loves listening to and making electronic music, but can also be found stealthily designing futuristic typefaces when inspiration strikes.

Jill joined Creative Concern in July 2006, having worked in communications for over ten years, previously as Regional Communications Officer for The Prince’s Trust. Jill has also been a Communications Officer for Culture Northwest, and a researcher and copywriter for Manchester-based design agency Creative Lynx.

Jill graduated from Sheffield Hallam with a degree in Communication Studies and completed the Chartered Institute of Marketing Professional Diploma. She is a professional member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.