In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Belden Menkus speaks with Sarah Waddington, Chief Executive of the PRCA, the world’s largest professional body for public relations and communications. She discusses what it means to represent the PR sector through uncertain times, and why the moment calls for a renewed understanding of what PR is and what it does.

Sarah brings two decades of experience across agency leadership, governance, and industry development, and she discusses how she has reoriented the PRCA's mission and unify the membership body through changing times. In their conversation, they discuss:

· Why public relations is not media relations or crisis management, but a strategic management discipline — and why that distinction matters enormously for how organisations use it and what they get from it.

· What Sarah found when she stepped into the CEO role, and how she rebuilt confidence by renewing the vision, mission and values and making them the basis for every decision.

· The PRCA’s two-pronged strategy: First, to increase understanding of what PR is and does, backed by a new industry definition. Second, to build a sector that is inclusive by default.

· The AI and reputation challenge — why organisations that are not actively managing their brand narrative and monitoring for misinformation are exposed in ways they may not fully appreciate, and what a strategic PR adviser can do about it.

· What drew Sarah to the role: her conviction, built over years of industry engagement, that PR has a larger contribution to make — not just to commercial outcomes, but to the wicked problems of fractured communities, damaged trust, and the narratives that either divide or bring people together.

PRCA: https://www.prca.org.uk/

Menkus & Associates: https://www.menkus.com/

Supported by Norman Broadbent: https://www.normanbroadbent.com/

Belden Menkus is the Managing Director of Menkus & Associates, a senior strategic advisory practice that provides strategic clarity for businesses with a public remit, where scrutiny is high, governance is complex, and the answers aren’t obvious. His McKinsey training combined with more than 30 years working at Board and ExCo level gives him both the analytical rigour and the relational experience that complex, high-stakes leadership situations demand.

Belden hosts The Purposeful Strategist, a weekly podcast. It explores how senior leaders bring purpose to life through strategy and reflects the same questions that drive the consulting work.