‘I knew I’d have to work twice as hard as a white person’: Preena Gadher on the fight for diversity in the workplace

View from the Top: The co-founder and co-MD of arts and culture specialist Riot Communications explains why creative industries like PR and publishing must diversify their workforce

She and a friend launched the firm from a bedroom with two laptops, two phones each and a pile of books (Riot Communications)

From poor work-life balance to incompetent bosses there are a lot of reasons why people quit their stable jobs to become independent or launch a business of their own – but few of those involve an AGA cooker.

Preena Gadher, co-founder and MD of award-winning agency Riot Communications, had been working at Penguin Random House for almost six years in 2008 when a conversation about the iconic oven prompted her to take the plunge.

“I left because career progression in publishing tends to be quite slow, but if I’m honest I didn’t think I really fitted in there,” Gadher says.

“It’s a very white, middle-class profession. I was having a conversation with some colleagues who were praising the virtues of AGA cookers in comparison with microwaves.

“I remember thinking, ‘One, I have to look up what an Aga is. Two, my parents were the first people to get a microwave in our area and it was something to be proud of – our neighbours came to look at it.’ I realised I was working in an organisation that was trashing microwaves and for me it was the first kind of sign that I just didn’t belong there in the long term.

“When you know your career isn’t going to progress much further, it’s time to look for the next challenge.”

A decade later her own agency Riot Communications, which specialises in culture and entertainment, made the PRWeek Power Book 2019, a list of the top 100 communication professionals in the UK.

Clients now include Moomin Characters, World Book Day, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Waterstones.

The agency also masterminded the PR campaign for Yuval Noah Harari’s international bestseller Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind, which passed the 1 million global sales mark and is reportedly one of Barack Obama’s favourite books.

“I’ve never overtly experienced someone holding me back because I am not white or middle-class and I’ll never know if someone decided not to work with me because I didn’t look like them,” Gadher says.

“But going from the publishing industry which is very white to the PR industry which is also very very white, I think I did have that sense of ‘Can I do this? Can I make it when there are no other role models?’. It does give you something to think about.

“When I was a child, my dad once told me how I’d have to work twice as hard as a white person to achieve the same level of success. I refused to believe it was true, but I see how right he was now.

“I often hear a lot of casual chat about the fact that people have a particular job or they are on a particular platform because they are non-white and it’s a box-ticking exercise. This makes me wonder whether people think that you got to where you are because you’re just a number or a diversity quota. I feel like I have to work really hard to show that I earned my right to be at this table.”

Gadher was born in Cardiff to Indian parents, while her grandparents were from east Africa. Her family moved to southeast London when she was eight although she still considers herself Welsh and supports their national rugby team.

Her passion for reading lead her to do an English degree at Sussex University and inspired her to start a career in publishing. “I did toy with starting a career journalism but my brother is a journalist and I didn’t want to copy him.“

After calling all the publishing houses in London with the hope of getting an internship in the editorial team, she eventually scored a work placement at Penguin Random House in their publicity department. Eventually, her two-week work placement turned into a six-week one and led to a permanent position as a junior assistant.

When I was a child, my dad once told me how I’d have to work twice as hard as a white person to achieve the same level of success

“I was going on tour around with Nobel Prize-winning authors and economists – essentially the brightest people in the world. As a 23-year-old, it felt like a huge privilege, an incredible opportunity to learn from the best and a totally intimidating experience,“ she says.

“Penguin is a brilliant place to train, they are quite commercially minded, which is great because they are in the business of selling books and you get to learn about the business side of things as well.“

Once her career started stalling, Gadher knew it was time for a change and, like many great business ideas, Riot Communications was born out of a night of drinking.

“One night I was having a conversation with my friend and former colleague Anwen Hooson, who went to work at Waterstones – we were drunk.

“We’d both seen the invoices from the agencies our employers would hire to do our campaigns – they would get paid loads more than us.

“We were convinced we could do a much better and thought, ‘Why don’t we do it ourselves? How hard can it be?’ Turns out it’s really hard. But we did it, we quit our jobs, it was in the summer of 2008 just before a massive financial meltdown.

“At 27 we had that youthful confidence, and perhaps we were a bit naive. But we didn’t have any responsibilities, no mortgage to pay or family. We felt like we could do anything.”

They launched Riot Communication in January 2009 from Hooson’s bedroom with two laptops, two phones each and a pile of books. It took them two years to move to hire their first employee and move to a small office in London Bridge (“Prior to the Shard, when rents were still affordable in the area.”)

Hooson left the business in 2007 to start a performing arts charity for young people. Gadher now leads an all-female team of eight from an office in Bethnal Green, east London

According to the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), women make up 63 per cent of the PR industry, yet of those surveyed, only 13 per cent of women were board directors or partners, while 29 per cent of men held these positions. “The number are ridiculous, it’s a massive problem,” Gadher says.

“Having an all-women team was not a conscious decision, but I do feel very proud because we are just as good as everyone else. When we were hiring the men who applied were just not as good. Overall, PR and the arts and culture sector are also more female-dominated, but I am proud to be working with a women-only team that is kicking ass.”

In the next few years, Gadher is hoping the agency will grow into different branches within the culture sector such as TV, film and music.

This year she also became a mother to a 14-month-old baby girl that she adopted with her partner, so her next challenge is finding a balance between her family life and her work.

“I am just loving being a mum and having a little person to think of does give you a new perspective on life.

“Finding a balance takes a lot of self-discipline. I’ve already scaled down to four days a week at work, which will make a massive difference. If I’m on holiday, I won’t be online and I don’t expect anyone to read their emails after 7pm.

“It’s one of the good things about running your own business, I learnt to let go and work out where I can add to have more positive impact.

“You can’t run a business and be a micro-manager, it’s a recipe for disaster especially if you want your business to grow.”

Perhaps surprisingly, for someone with her experience, Gadher was an MD mentee at Women in PR before she went on to become a mentor for the BME PR Pros Mentoring Scheme, which aims to increase the number of PR professionals from ethnic minorities in top UK roles.

Having an all-women team was not a conscious decision, but I do feel very proud because we are just as good as everyone else

“I’m a firm believer that you are never too old or too far into your career to learn new skills and benefit from the guidance of someone who has successfully trodden the path. All I wanted was to find a mentor that was a few steps ahead of me in the game and also founded their own agency.

“I was paired with founder of Shine Communications Rachel Bell and I can honestly it was an incredible opportunity to learn and also very reassuring to see the challenges your faces are not new and solvable.

“As I mentor I also benefited enormously from my mentee. It’s interesting to see what the landscape looks like from the perspective of a person who’s just starting out in the sector. And I want to show people that If I can do it, anyone can.”

Her hope for the industry? “I just really want more non-white people to enter PR. We are a creative industry, we won’t be able to do the job we are paid to do if everybody in the room looks the same. You can’t come up with interesting and fresh ideas if you’re working in a room full of cookie-cutter versions of you.”