At Grayling, it’s the breadth of experience across our teams that shapes the work we deliver.

This month, we’re spotlighting Chris Isaac from our Planning & Infrastructure team, whose career spans consumer campaigns, infrastructure legislation and everything in between.

In his Q&A, he reflects on a career spanning politics, financial services and major infrastructure projects, sharing insights on navigating complexity, leading through challenge, and the evolving role of communications.

What first drew you to the communications industry?

I have always wanted to understand how the world works. I studied politics and then worked for politicians in the Senedd and Westminster because I thought that’s where everything happened. I got poached by a public affairs agency where I learned about the interaction between business and politics. After that, I went in-house, lobbying for a bank (Santander) in Westminster and Europe.

I was always looking to broaden my experience and did more PR and media, working for another agency and then for Centrica, as a corporate affairs manager. That’s where I got into the energy business and learned about planning and infrastructure, spending nearly a decade heading National Grid’s external affairs team – managing politics, PR and public engagement on some of the country’s biggest and most controversial energy projects.

Why did you decide to join Grayling?

I must have been aware of Grayling for about twenty years before I joined. As a competitor, as a client, and as a friend to people who worked here. I’ve always respected the work, but what’s always impressed me is the way people who work here speak about it – and how long they stay.

I think it says something about the culture of the company – and I wanted some of that!

Before joining you spent some time as a carer, what did that teach you about yourself and life in general?

I had no intention of becoming a carer. A set of unfortunate circumstances unfolded and I knew the best thing for my mother was for her to come live with me. Watching the woman who taught me as a kid to do my shoelaces struggling through dementia to tie her own has been one of the hardest things.

I suppose it’s confirmed in me my own resilience – and where I get it from – along with other qualities which, over the last few years, I’ve come to admire in my mother. But overall, it’s made me realise it’s an illusion (“a cope”, if you like) to think we have any control over any of the important things in life.

What’s been one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

I think I’m naturally inclined to sniff out challenges and controversies. I worked for a pro-Iraq War MP in 2003; worked for a bank during the financial crisis of 07-08. Then spent years working on energy projects – anaerobic digestors (no smell, honest); wind farms in mid Wales; power lines through national parks – all of which attract lots of opposition. I think it just takes a certain type of personality to do that sort of thing, and to enjoy leading a team through it.

What’s the biggest thing happening in the planning and infrastructure space right now?

Two things. First, the massive amount of investment earmarked for new projects – in particular energy and housing, as well as water and transport. And second, to speed up the facilitation of those projects, a new planning act which, in theory at least, will make consent simpler and easier.

What that looks like in practice will be critical to how – and how much – new infrastructure gets built, as well as how P&I can continue to grow our business. And I look forward to helping shape both of those things.

What’s something that’s changed in communications over the course of your career?

I think the biggest shift I’ve noticed is how business executives have become more sensitive to publicity and scrutiny – perhaps because there is just so much more of it today. But I often find a sense of timidity now when businesses should be explaining and justifying their goals, when it used to feel like the opposite.

What’s a fun fact about you that most people at Grayling wouldn’t know?

Growing up in Wales, I was obsessed with rugby. So, I was very excited when Pontypridd, Wales and British Lions legend, Neil Jenkins, came to my under-16s training session. I cheekily asked him for a lift home, hoping to prolong my time with the rugby hero… which lasted exactly 50 metres when it turned out he was going the other way.

What’s one professional habit or tool you swear by?

I still make handwritten notes with a pen in a notepad. I often don’t need to read them back, but the process always aids my memory in a way typing doesn’t. It’s the same when I read a piece of text on paper versus a screen.

We all have a few “industry buzzwords” we could live without… what’s yours?

Everything becomes a cliché in the end. Generally, I like local vernacular and dislike corporate Americanisms. The worst being: “Thanks for reaching out.” I’m not a gropey missionary, I just sent you an email.