George set up River Effra with a vision to bring an exceptional understanding of risk and an unrivalled team of advisers together, to solve reputational crises.

He has deep expertise in risk and crisis management, acting as an adviser to companies and organisations over the past 30 years, when facing the toughest of challenges. This has included the BSE crisis and McLibel trial, 7/7 bombings, global criminal and regulatory investigations as well as integrity issues facing leadership.

He currently coaches a risk advisory module for the MBA course at Imperial College London.

Rachel has more than 25 years’ experience of advising senior leaders on taking informed, risk-based decisions in high pressure situations, honed in sectors including FMCG, healthcare, education and travel.

As well as heading international teams from the UK, she has worked in markets including India and China, helping multinational businesses to manage mergers, transformations, incidents and crises; respecting local cultural context, while always delivering to global governance and compliance standards.

She has led issues management for major incidents, product recalls, business change, acquisitions and divestments and prepared leaders to engage customers, employees, government and business partners through significant challenge.

Holly’s experience spans multiple advisory firms and counsel to some of the world’s leading organisations on risk and crisis management. She is a crisis preparedness specialist and has worked with senior leaders to develop programmes which build, establish, and test best-in-class crisis governance structures and response protocols. Her work has successfully supported clients preparing for high-impact, disruptive events, including business-critical cyber-attacks, major supply chain disruptions, employee fatalities, and systemic integrity issues.

She holds a BA History and Politics degree from the University of Oxford.

Tom joined River Effra as an Account Manager, having spent much of his career working in British and European politics. He worked in the European Parliament prior to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and in the House of Commons for a Conservative MP. In between, he worked at a public affairs consultancy in Brussels, specialising in energy policy. In this role, he advised clients on the implications of EU decarbonisation initiatives, and how they should shape their engagement strategies in the disruptive context of the European Green Deal.

He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from King’s College London and The London School of Economics and Political Science respectively, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Law.

Alicia joined River Effra as an Account Manager in May 2023. She is a motivated and energetic corporate affairs professional with experience in external communications and public affairs. Prior to joining the team she worked for international investment and property group Lendlease, and Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. In her previous roles she honed the skills vital to managing corporate risk and crises, bringing together communications, story-telling and strategic partnerships to help organisations navigate reputation risk.

Alicia holds a BA History degree from University College London.

Tori’s career first started as a Junior Account Handler in the insurance industry at AON, she went on to become a Senior Account Executive then after 15 years, to fit in better with family life, she chose a change in her career to become a Virtual Assistant.

Tori is a Personal Assistant to a number of business leaders, Tori started by supporting & running her family business, she extended her client base over the years and she specialises in assessing their needs to help the business run more efficiently by streamlining and implementing platforms to support their day to day running as well as providing any necessary training & guidance, ensuring that the business can focus on what they do best and achieve their targets.

Niki is an HR Director who supports small businesses and start ups in setting up and running the HR function. She works with business owners to ensure they have the right HR strategy in place to deliver healthy, happy, motivated, productive and high performing teams and in building a positive culture where people can deliver their best work everyday.

Carrie is a Finance Director who is passionate about business being a force for good in the world. As founder of Sapphire8 she works with small and growing business owners to ensure that their ambitious plans are underpinned by solid strategic planning and expert day-to-day financial management.

Carrie values straight-talking, authentic collaboration, and provides creative thinkers with clear and meaningful financial insight so they can focus on what they do best.