• 1. Please introduce yourself, what you do for work and what you enjoy for fun.

-My name is Claudine Moore, I am a managing director at Allison. I’m not sure if it’s for fun but I do like working out. Whether or not it's for fun, I feel like it's something that we all have to and should do at the very least. On December 14, I will be taking part in my first half marathon in Central Park. In addition to enjoying being active, I do love traveling.

• 2. How do you self-define, and what aspects of your (cultural) identity are most significant to you? 

-I was born and raised in the UK, but my parents are from the Carribean. I was brought up by my pan-Africanist parents who brought myself and my sisters up to know and believe that while we are British nationality and a Caribbean parentage as we are Black, we are Africans. I consider myself an African at the source of who I am because that's my cultural ancestry.

This follows up into the work that I do. Prior to joining Allison, I had my own PR agency, “C. Moore Media International Public Relations.” We specialized in African markets and really focused on corporate tech work. We were one of the most well-known agencies that focused on tech in Africa.

I also lived and worked in Nigeria for two years. In Nigeria, I worked for Tony Elumelu, who is one of the biggest business leaders on the continent. When my agency, C. Moore Media, was acquired by Alison in July 2022, I became the managing director of the African region, expanding Allison into Africa for the first time. There's a direct correlation between my cultural background and the work that I do. As a member of the African diaspora, I'm very passionate about the socioeconomic development of the continent. Also, a trip to Ghana in 2010 completely opened my eyes to how biased global media is when it comes to reporting and sharing images of the continent. I was so shocked by what I was seeing in the news, movies and TV. It was all so disproportionately negative. I thought to myself, “Claudine, you're a PR person. As a PR person, you share stories, shape narratives, form reputations, and you should really think about dedicating the work that you do to the socioeconomic development of the continent.” I'm a firm believer that one of the problems that Africa is facing is a branding problem. There are incredible things happening across the continent, but they just aren't amplified, shared, or seen. So there's a direct correlation between my identity as a woman of African descent and the work that I do. I'm here now, leading the African practice for a global agency after my agency was acquired.

• 3. Why are you most passionate about working in PR and Communications? What drives your interest in this field?

-I'm really passionate about the opportunities across Africa, across the continent. There are so many incredible areas of growth across Africa. You have markets like Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana that are really growing across a variety of sectors. Whether it's technology, education, corporations, telecoms, etc. I'm really passionate about supporting that growth.

From the perspective of leveraging PR and communications, it’s important to support organizations raising their visibility because a lot of these organizations and sectors are seeking investment. As I currently sit in the US, I'm in a unique position because I work between the US and the UK. I’m like a bridge between businesses and investors in the US and to a certain extent in the UK and opportunities within sectors, within countries, within organizations in Africa that are also seeking investment. I'm the bridge between that. I'm really excited about this because there’s opportunities for partnership between both the US and African countries, as well as the UK and African countries.

• 4. What specific initiatives or changes would you recommend to create a more inclusive work environment? What inclusivity and equity initiatives have you implemented within your organization that you are most proud of? 

-I think agencies should widen the pull from which they are recruiting from. It sounds very simple and to a certain extent it is. However, I've been in the US PR industry for over 20 years now, and it still hasn't changed. I think we tend to hire from the same pool of people. Even myself included, it's not uncommon to hear that people have backgrounds working at Burson, then H&K Strategies, and then Edelman. They're going from agency to agency, just recruiting from the same pool of people and as an industry, we're doing ourselves a disservice by not looking outside of the low hanging fruit and getting additional talent. Not only for diversity along the lines of gender, race etc., but in terms of expertise. We want people who have a background in comms, but there are some great business development people who aren't necessarily from an agency, who have complementary skills and expertise that would serve them well in being part of business development in an agency, even if they don't come from an agency background. We should mix up where we draw talent from. 

An initiative I'm most proud of was in 2020. My agency, C. Moore Media, launched the Futurist Female Mentorship Program, www.thefutureisfemalementorshipprogram.com. It's the first and only PR and mentorship program dedicated to African female tech founders. Women across the world are the least invested in. That is exacerbated when you're looking at women of color, then even further when you look at women who are in African markets. I'm so proud of it because we celebrated our fifth year. We've had incredible partners who have joined us; Salesforce, Google, TechCabal. We're one of the fastest growing communities of tech founders in the continent. To date, we have had applications from hundreds of women across 37 African countries. I'm really excited about this because there is not a PR and mentorship program dedicated for African female founders anywhere. This is a model that we created when we merged with Allison. Allison then took this program on board so it's now an initiative that is growing. 

We launched this at the height of COVID and as a small business myself, we were going through so much. I thought to myself, “With all the resources that you have, what must it be like for women who have a small company who are just starting out?” The program has master classes, digital marketing, media relations, etc. We also bring in reporters to speak for people who cover tech and teach how to story tell - everything you can think of. These female founders have gone on to do great things. They always say that they came in having no idea how critical PR and comms was until we were able to share that with them.

• 5. What are your thoughts on the state of DEI in PR and the politics around it? How do you perceive its impact on both individuals and organizations?

-I always start with data. The data shows that America is becoming more diverse, not less diverse. Therefore, we need agencies to reflect the demographics of the country. We have to be able to support our clients in communicating across different markets, sectors, and regions in different ways. If you only have teams that only reflect one particular group, we will become ineffective as an industry. I do think the politicization of DE&I is really unfortunate because diversity and inclusion really should be something that is naturally seen as a seamless part of any organization. I think smart, forward-thinking organizations will rise above political pressure and the political fray to understand administrations. Therefore, prevailing politics will change. If you are an organization that allows yourself to be swayed with the peaks of politics, you will render yourself ineffective in communicating. It's really important for organizations to come above the political fray and look at their business, employees, sectors of which they work, and look at how they want to support their clients. Understand that diversity and inclusion is just going to make us better at what we do.

However, there's nothing wrong with the language around DE&I evolving. There's nothing wrong with us having honest and candid conversations about some organizations that only had knee-jerk reactions to embark on DE&I due to George Floyd, or the resurgence of Black Lives Matter as a result of the murder of George Floyd. There are a lot of organizations that had a knee-jerk reaction to that. I'm sure some folks have buyer's remorse because they probably hired some people they shouldn't have hired. However, they should never have had a knee-jerk reaction to it in the first place. They should have taken a step back and just considered what was at play. Furthermore, as we look at the data by the year 2030, the majority of people in America will be people of color, black and brown. If you're a smart organization that wants to see the growth of your business in 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now, you will look at that data and you'll adjust accordingly.

• 6. Reflecting on your journey, what advice would you give to your younger self and early career professionals who are starting their careers? How can they navigate their professional paths while staying true to their identities and overcoming potential challenges?

-Embrace all and every opportunity. Everything you do is never wasted. You may spend weeks working on trying to get a particular client and working on research, pitching and RFP, and you don't get the account and you think, “…that's a waste of time.” Nothing is wasted. 

Always operate with integrity. Your personal reputation is everything. I've always been a great networker and I've always operated from a place of integrity. As a result, I have really good relationships within the industry that continue to serve me really well. Years later, networking is still so essential. When I first moved to New York, I remember going to networking events three or four times a week. Sometimes I thought to myself that it’s going to be such a waste of time. However, networking outside of the industry served me well because I know people across industries, sectors and globally. 

Don't allow people to pigeonhole you. When I first moved to America, people said I’m Black, disregarding that I was born and raised in the UK. They assume that because I’m Black, I could do multicultural marketing. I thought to myself that I could, but I've just moved to America and I'm still learning about America itself. Just because I'm Black doesn't mean I necessarily know about the Black American experience. I now do because I've lived here for 20 years and I'm an American citizen, I'm a dual citizen. I have a massive understanding about multicultural markets. Purposely, when I first moved here, I wanted to start off learning general business in America, then after that, I specialized in a number of different areas. I spent two and a half years working for Louis Vuitton, leading their internal communications as their internal communications director of the Americas. It had nothing to do with Africa, nothing to do with multiculturalism, nothing to do with diversity, but I led that for two years. I've got deep expertise in multicultural marketing, but I'm also a generalist. I'm really glad I did that because I've kept my options open and the areas where I've got a specialty, end up complementing each other. 

When you look at PR in African markets back in 2012, some of the first articles on PR and communications there were written by myself for PR Week. That complements the work that I do with global businesses who are now expanding to Africa and are seeking agencies that have African expertise because they have clients who want to expand globally. Allison, for example, is able to say that they have this expertise to work with American organizations that are seeking to do business across the continent. 

• 7. What’s the next biggest project you can share regarding DEI you’re working on?

-One of our clients is Ebony Magazine. Ebony is 80 years old next year and I'm excited that we're the agency of record. It's legacy work. It's an iconic American publishing company and an iconic Black American brand. I'm just really proud that I lead the account. 

Interview conducted and hosted by Jenny H.