About — Academy of Relationship Management

Experts on demand

Paul Cowan & Claire Robertson are the co-founders, and lead tutors, of the Academy of Relationship Management.

Together they have decades of experience and expertise, which they are now making available to everyone, around the world, on demand via the Academy’s online training programmes.

Picture of Paul Cowan founder of Academy of Relationship Management

Paul dropped out of school, and became a runner for Ogilvy London, where he got hooked on advertising and met his wife. He subsequently joined Saatchi and Saatchi London and stayed for 12 years before co-founding his own breakaway agency. Whilst Paul was running his agency he became fascinated by business relationships. He left the agency to gain a Masters in Organisational Psychology becoming an Organisational Change Agent. He then studied Gestalt Psychotherapy and became a psychotherapist and a couple’s counsellor. 20 years ago he co-founded the Client Relationship Consultancy, who now work with almost every major agency group in every major market. In 2022 his first book, Connecting with Clients, was published.

Picture of Claire Robertson founder of Academy of Relationship Management

Claire’s first job was in marketing at Procter & Gamble, where she worked with advertising agencies but from the other side of the table as a client. From there she was tempted by the bright lights of advertising and joined Ogilvy followed by DDB. After many years in client handling, she became Talent Director at DDB London, helping teams reach their full potential through development programmes. From there she joined the Client Relationship Consultancy and has spent a decade consulting on client relationships for agencies worldwide. Claire contributed to Paul’s book.