UK Royal Mail nets Fagan for corp affairs role

Royal Mail Group has appointed Sunday Telegraph deputy City editor Mary Fagan as corporate affairs director.

Fagan said she had begun a three-month notice period at the paper, but her start-date at the Royal Mail – where she will replace company stalwart Alan Williams, who revealed his plan to leave in May (PRWeek, 16 May) – was yet to be decided.

She will join an organisation currently embroiled in dispute over pay-rates with the Communication Workers Union, which represents Post Office staff and is considering action that would result in the first national postal strike for seven years.

Royal Mail is in the middle of a three-year programme of cutbacks and restructuring, conceived by chairman Allan Leighton to return the company to profitability.

Fagan remained tight-lipped about her plans, saying it was ‘very early days’, but she said the ‘competition and regulation issues, government affairs and consumer aspects’ of her remit particularly appealed to her.

In her new role she will take charge of external relations with the media, government and parliament, plus remits such as internal communications.

Regarding her imminent departure from journalism, Fagan said: ‘This was the first PR job that appealed to me.’

It is understood that Fagan will work alongside Williams, who joined the Royal Mail a decade ago, for a short-term transition period when she starts work in the role.