Ex-Bell Pottinger chief vows to contest potential boardroom ban
Former Bell Pottinger chief executive James Henderson has vowed to fight a potential boardroom ban looming over him in the wake of the PR firm’s high-profile collapse in 2017.
Henderson faces a director disqualification hearing alongside former Bell Pottinger colleagues Victoria Geoghegan and Nick Lambert, according to court documents.
The public relations firm fell into administration in 2017 after running a racially charged PR campaign for the billionaire Gupta family in South Africa that emphasised the power of white-owned businesses in the country.
Bell Pottinger was struck off from the UK’s industry body following the campaign, after a swathe of major clients including HSBC and Investec cut ties with the firm.
Henderson, who resigned from the company shortly before its collapse, faces a boardroom ban of up to 15 years under the Company Directors Disqualification Act.
In a statement, Henderson today said he intends to “fight this matter in court in order to preserve my good name”, adding that he was “confident” the court would rule in his favour.
“I simply would never have embarked upon, condoned or ignored any course of action that would have endangered the firm that I proudly led and loved, nor would I have done anything to stir division in South Africa or elsewhere,” he said.
“When legitimate concerns were raised with me about other accounts, I had no hesitation in resigning them irrespective of their value to the firm.”
Henderson added that he “never had any involvement” in the controversial account, and that “it is also a fact that I was actively misled when I sought to get to the truth”.
The PR guru now heads up J&H Communications, a start-up relations firm in London.
Accounting firm BDO, who acted as administrators following Bell Pottinger’s collapse, said it was still owed hundreds of thousands of pounds from the PR firm’s executives, after it was “heavily financially impacted” by the scandal.
It comes on the same day that former Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix received a seven-year directorship ban.
The political consultancy collapsed amid an international scandal over its harvesting of personal data during election campaigns and in the run-up to the Brexit vote in 2016.
Nix, who ran Cambridge Analytica’s parent company SCL Election, did not contest the ban, which will prevent him from serving as director of a limited company in the UK until 2027.
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