Timothy Bell, Baron Bell

Timothy John Leigh Bell, Baron Bell (18 October 1941 – 25 August 2019), was a British advertising and public relations executive, best known for his advisory role in Margaret Thatcher's three successful general election campaigns and his co-founding and 30 years of heading Bell Pottinger.

Bell was born in Southgate, North London on 18 October 1941, to Belfast-born Arthur Leigh Bell, a Crosse & Blackwell sales representative, and Greta Mary Finlay, an Australian.

His father left the family when his son was four, moving to South Africa and becoming a radio broadcaster known as "Uncle Paddy."

In 1952, his mother remarried Peter Pettit, the solicitor who had handled her divorce.

Bell was educated at Osidge Primary School and Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Barnet, and joined ABC Weekend TV at 18 as a post boy.

He worked in various advertising/PR firms in the late 60s including the London agency Colman Prentice & Varley and later Geers Gross, before helping to found and becoming managing director of Saatchi and Saatchi in 1970, later serving as chairman and managing director of Saatchi and Saatchi Compton from 1975.

On 19 November 1977, Bell was fined £50 for indecency.

He had exposed himself while masturbating at his Hampstead bathroom window on 21 October in full view of female passers-by.

For her first 1979 victory, he developed the strategy for the 'Labour Isn't Working' campaign, created by Saatchi creative director Jeremy Sinclair and Bell advised the future Prime Minister on interview techniques, clothing, and even hairstyle choices.

He also courted newspaper editors and worked on devastating attacks on the Labour Party.

In 1984, Bell was seconded to the National Coal Board to advise on media strategy at the start of the miners' strike.

He worked on media relations and helped set the terms of the negotiations and course of government policy.

He left the Saatchis to join Frank Lowe and Geoff Howard-Spink in 1985 to have his name on the door at Lowe Howard-Spink and Bell where he served as deputy chairman.

Later, in 1989 he bought out the PR division which became his own agency, Lowe Bell Communications, and he became chairman of Chime Communications in 1994 (which included the Bell Pottinger group).

Bell was instrumental in the Conservative general election campaign victories of Margaret Thatcher and was seen as Thatcher's "favourite spin-doctor and confidante."

Bell advised Hernán Büchi, a former minister of the Pinochet dictatorship, in the presidential election of 1989.

Büchi eventually lost by a large margin to Patricio Aylwin.

Bell was knighted in 1991 after nomination by Margaret Thatcher, and created a Life Peer after nomination as a Conservative working peer as Baron Bell of Belgravia in the City of Westminster on 31 July 1998.

He was often later seen on panels and current affairs programmes discussing the issues of the day, and was chairman of the Conservative Party's Keep the £ Campaign.

He also served on various arts and public administration bodies.

Lord Bell, a friend of Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, handled the media attention behind poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died in hospital 23 November 2006.

The Bell Pottinger Communications agency distributed a photograph showing a hairless Litvinenko in his hospital bed.

The PR Agency also offered advice to relatives of Litvinenko and his spokesman Alex Goldfarb.

In December 2006, Lord Bell successfully lobbied on behalf of the Saudi government to discontinue the Serious Fraud Office investigation into alleged bribes in the Al Yamamah arms deal.

Lord Bell also performed public relations work for the authoritarian government of Belarus, and for the Pinochet Foundation (Fundación Pinochet).

In addition, he worked as an advisor to former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

In late 2011, Bell's lobbying interests were investigated by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for The Independent newspaper which reported claims that the company attempts to interfere with Google results to "drown" out coverage of human rights abuses, that his employees had altered English Wikipedia entries to create a better impression of clients and had easy access (via former Conservative MP Tim Collins) to the Cameron government and others overseas.

Bell Pottinger, via a sting operation, were found to be willing to work for the authoritarian regime in Uzbekistan.

Bell launched an internal inquiry, but believed he had been singled out for his connection with Mrs Thatcher.

Chime disposed of Bell Pottinger in June 2012 (while retaining a 25% stake in the business), when Bell also resigned as a director of Chime.

On 8 April 2013 it was Bell who officially announced the news of Lady Thatcher's death.

Bell Pottinger announced Lord Bell's departure as chairman to set up an advisory firm, Sans Frontières Associates, in August 2016.

He retained a 7% stake in Bell Pottinger.

Tony Walford, partner at Green Square stated, "Perhaps not coincidentally, Sans Frontières was the original name of the public relations firm he set up before it was renamed Bell Pottinger; it was also the name of the unit that handled the firm's controversial lobbying and consultancy work for the governments of countries such as Belarus and Sri Lanka."

A "leading PR figure" told The Times that his resignation from his own agency didn't come as a surprise, saying: "Ultimately, he did not fit with the kind of corporate image Bell Pottinger wanted to project", in the end.

Walford explained that, "there is big money to be made from representing governments and other entities, no matter how reviled they are. The problem is, this kind of activity sits increasingly uneasily with corporates keen on projecting a responsible image."

In January 2017, the Huffington Post reported that Johann Rupert, CEO of Remgro and Richemont, ended an 18-year-old contract with Bell Pottinger due to their 'concerted effort on social and other media to discredit him'.

Rupert had spoken out against state capture and called on President Jacob Zuma to resign "for the sake of our children".

As the Guptas back Zuma, Rupert asserted that Bell Pottinger painted him as the embodiment of "white monopoly capital" and as the counterweight to the Guptas and state capture, an example of how state capture allegedly worked under apartheid.

Eleven months after leaving Bell Pottinger and six days after the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) acknowledged receipt of the Democratic Alliance's complaint, on, 11 July 2017, Bell announced for the first recorded time to PRWeek that he had left Bell Pottinger after raising his concerns about its "Smelly" relationship with the Gupta family's Oakbay conglomerate in South Africa but that they had "completely ignored me"; Bell Pottinger denied his claims.