Hire from 10 Downing Street adds to recent growth of the firm’s UK bench in public affairs
Penta Group has hired James Lyons as Senior Partner in London, where he will lead work across public affairs, corporate reputation, and special situations.
Lyons joins from the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or 10 Downing Street, where he served as Director of Strategic Communications.
In that role, Lyons ran government news planning and narrative strategy for the Starmer administration, coordinated communications across Whitehall, and devised and delivered the Government's Plan for Change. He joined 10 Downing Street after having helped write the Labour Party's 2024 general election manifesto. Before entering government, he set up and ran the European arm of TikTok’s Corporate and Policy Communications team. Earlier, he served as Director of Communications at the National Health Service (NHS), which included Covid, and served as Deputy Political Editor at both the Sunday Times and the Daily Mirror.
At Penta, Lyons will bring his breadth of experience across the public, private, and media sectors to bear on behalf of clients operating at the intersection of political, reputational, and public-scrutiny risks.
"James has had a seat at some of the most consequential tables in British public life, and his firsthand, cross-sector experience is rare in this industry," said Conall McDevitt, President of Penta Group, based in the firm's London office. "He has run communications at the centre of government, steered a global technology company through some of the most contested regulatory terrain in Europe, and built his instincts as a national political journalist. We’re delighted for him to bring that experience to bear for our clients as they navigate an increasingly complex set of concerns in the public domain."
"Governments move faster, regulators are more assertive, and the media landscape is more unpredictable than at any point in my career,” said Lyons. “What drew me to Penta is the ability to navigate those challenges for our clients, powered by an intelligence platform that can detect signals in real time."
Lyons's appointment is the latest in a series of senior hires in London, following the arrivals of Jim O'Leary as CEO and Alex Hogan as Managing Director in the firm's Financial Services practice.
About Penta Group
Penta is a modern corporate advisory firm helping global organisations navigate the intersection of political, reputational, financial, and technological risk. The firm combines senior advisory expertise with a proprietary intelligence platform to help clients understand and act on the stakeholder ecosystems that shape their business outcomes. Penta is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in London, New York, Brussels, Dublin, Singapore, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. The firm is backed by Shamrock Capital. For more information, visit www.pentagroup.com