Former funeral director John Munro has been appointed senior external affairs manager at Which? and is covering for Olivia Wapshott, who is on maternity leave.
He is managing a team of four people and began his new role on 13th October. He reports to Steve Edwards, head of external affairs and campaigns at Which?.
Munro has more than 12 years experience in comms, most recently as campaigns and public affairs manager at Co-op, which he left in June this year.
He told In.Comms why he made the move to Which?: “My previous role was a fixed-term contract, and when it came to an end, I was ready for a new challenge. I wanted to find a role where I could make a real impact in an organisation with a mission I genuinely believe in.”
Munro added: “Which? stood out as an organisation to me because of its commitment to making life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone. When I saw the opportunity to join as senior external affairs manager, I knew it was the perfect fit.”
His priority is to “maintain and build on the strong relationships Which? has established with businesses and regulators. I’ll be focusing on strengthening these partnerships to ensure they remain productive, collaborative and mutually beneficial.”
Munro is also “excited to work on implementing our business change strategy to help drive the business forward”.
He started out as constituency manager for the Bath Liberal Democrats before becoming campaigns manager at National Campaign for the Arts in 2008.
Munro went on to spend more than five years at the British Retail Consortium, where he was an external affairs adviser, and in 2017 moved to Four Communications – where he spent a year as account director in the agency’s public affairs team.
He subsequently held roles such as senior external affairs manager, The Health Foundation; and public affairs manager, Roche. But in 2021 Munro stepped away from comms to become a humanist funeral celebrant and in 2022 he became a funeral director at the Co-op before returning to comms a year later.
Photo: supplied by subject