For our July meet the team feature, get to know all about Prohibition founder and Managing Director, Chris!

How long have you been at Prohibition? Since the very beginning – we became ltd nine years ago but prior to that I ran it whilst I was freelance for a few years so about 12 in total, I think.

What do you love most about your job? I love the fact we win together, lose together and take on challenges trying to add value to the client. Every day is different and fresh and I have always loved that about working as a collective.

Tell us a bit about your journey to working at Prohibition.

I worked on a nuclear power station in Internal Comms in my first role and then moved to London and worked there for 5 years initially in consumer tech PR but then I moved into OTC medicine PR which I really loved.

I then moved back to my hometown of Harrogate and joined Harrison Cowley where I worked there for few years and we merged with Trimedia and I was promoted to Account Director and ran a team.

I was then head hunted to work in the UK’s first ever social media agency as I had a big interest in blogging and the whole social media thing blew up.

I then moved to another agency in Leeds and worked as a senior account director on a contract and was offered a few positions but I wanted to stay working for myself and I wanted to set up properly which I did around 12 years ago. The rest as they say is history.

What’s your top tip for someone looking to get into the PR industry? Try and be different but not cocky. Get as much work experience as you can – this is critical. Do everything you can to get experience from a number of different places because if you don’t, the other candidates will and this is the difference between me choosing you or them.

What’s your favourite social media platform and why? Twitter because its where the banter is – it also has bullying issues but on the whole, it’s a brilliant platform that puts you directly in touch with anyone anywhere. The power of that still can blow my mind today.

What do you love most about working/living up North? The Wippets and Flat caps (jokes). No I like the fact the work ethic is work hard, but not until 10pm and the fun element of the people up here is great. Clients prefer to hear what you think rather than playing buzzword bingo which can happen in other parts of the country. Northerners know what they want I suppose. They are also great people at the end of the day and that makes things fun.

What three things could you not live without? Football, My family and Beer.

Give us your favourite quote. It’s PR not ER or in 100 years we will all be dead so none of this actually matters. 😊

If you could switch places with any celeb for the day – who would it be and why? I think it would be pretty cool to have a go at being Calvin Harris for a day. He is now the biggest DJ in the world and gets paid £250k to play two-hour sets. I would love to experience that just for one 24hr period and then probably have a week off afterwards. It would just be so much fun.

What’s something you’re secretly (or not so secretly!) really good at/passionate about outside of work? I came sixth in the UK DJ championships back in 2006 at the Olympia. I then took up a part-time career DJing all over London alongside my daytime career and I even DJed at the Radio One Christmas party one year which was eventful. I can tell you that working until 4am every weekend can take it out of you, but I loved it and my bank balance didn’t do too badly either as it enabled me to have actual money in London and so I saved up my deposit for my first house for when I moved back up North. My old boss Paul used to take the mickey when at 4pm in the office in London I would go and get changed into my “DJ Clothes”. Those were the days.

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About Abbey Gray

Account Manager at Prohibition PR. First class journalism graduate, passionate writer and novice baker! Based in Leeds.