Interview with Sami McCabe, Founder and CEO, Clarity PR

With Megan and Harry’s Oprah interview fresh in our minds I wanted to follow up on a Clarity PR blog post that had caught my eye.

I wanted to get the lo-down from Sami on what had prompted the ambitious initiative and what progress had been made against the backdrop of Covid-19. 

We asked:

  • Can you describe the last year in a sentence?
  • Tell me about the EDI initiative you have launched at Clarity and why now?
  • Is this simply a tick box exercise – can you paint a picture that shows me it is not?
  • What do the team think? How will this benefit them? Your clients? The comms industry as a whole?
  • Will you/do you hold your clients accountable for their EDI record?
  • What will good look like?
  • What blocks or challenges do you foresee?
  • What have you learned about yourself in driving Clarity’s agenda on EDI?

A useful 18 minute piece on what agency leaders could and should be thinking about when it comes to upping the action on ED&I. Communication agency leaders are in a powerful position to influence the agenda and to ensure clients they work for are held accountable. This is the time for agencies to step up and be a force for good. New generation Z recruits will expect nothing less, and rightly so.

Bio

Background 
An entrepreneur at heart, Sami has founded a number of ventures, including various marcoms agencies and technology businesses. Involved in the burgeoning startup community in London for many years, Sami identified an opportunity to launch a different type of communications agency dedicated to serving high-growth technology businesses. This led to Sami launching Clarity in early 2013. Now based in San Francisco, Sami is immersed in the exciting tech and startup scene, and while fully focused on building Clarity into the best agency in the world, uses his wider experience outside the agency world to bring a fresh perspective to the way we build the business.
 
Current role
As CEO, Sami sets the vision for the business, and ensures that at a strategic level the business is fully aligned to achieve its goals. He works with the global leadership team to ensure they are always challenging themselves to achieve more, and ask the difficult questions that will keep them at the top of their game. 

Sami brings the entrepreneur’s eye for seeing the bigger opportunity, and uses his deep connections in the technology, VC and agency worlds to develop relationships that will further the team’s aspirations.  From potential acquisition targets, to new services or geographies, and new clients and senior hires, Sami is responsible for bringing in the strategic opportunities and deals to drive the agency’s growth. 

If you are a business owner or leader in an organisation and you would like to be interviewed for the Q&R Listen.Better vodcast series in 2021 please do get in touch for an initial chat: tellmemore@questionandretain.co.uk