George Pitcher

George Pitcher is a journalist, author, public relations pioneer and an Anglican priest. He was appointed Religion Editor of Telegraph Media in May 2008, covering the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs and the on-line output. He was Industrial Editor of The Observer between 1988 and 1991, during which his commentary on the high summer of Thatcherite utility privatisation led to the Industrial Society (the precursor to the Work Foundation) voting him National Newspaper Industrial Journalist of the Year in 1991. In 1992, he co-founded the innovative communications consultancy Luther Pendragon with Charles Stewart-Smith, the television journalist. The firm grew through the Nineties off the back of major and often controversial clients such as British Gas, Kimberly Clark, Holocaust Memorial Day and the Hinduja family. Luther Pendragon lays claim to having developed the professional practice of issues management, but this is disputed in the PR industry. In 2006, the firm was subject to a management buy-out, said to be worth £11 million by the trade magazine "PR Week". Pitcher had undertaken training for ordained ministry in the Church of England and was ordained curate of St Bride's, Fleet Street, London - known as The Media Church. He is now Associate Priest at St Bride's. He has proved a contentious priest, organising debates in church and a Christmas concert by Seventies supergroup Jethro Tull. He occasionally attacks the conservative evangelical wing of the Church in print.

Personal

Pitcher is married to an Italian woman with several children and lives in Sussex. One of his properties was once owned by the Harrods family (The people who founded Harrods, Knightsbridge, London).

Publications

Numerous articles in newspapers and magazines, usually on business topics and religion. In 2002, Wiley published his work "The Death of Spin", an indictment of the superficiality of business and politics.