The executive voice
MODERN MEDIA TRAINING FOR LEADERS WHO HAVE TO PERFORM IN PUBLIC
Leaders are now performers, participants and publishers – often in the same week. A live broadcast interview on Monday, a 45-minute podcast on Wednesday, a panel on Thursday and an all-staff town hall on Friday.
The media training most executives learned a decade ago hasn't kept pace. Three bridging phrases, two key messages and a way to duck the negative: that playbook is now the fastest way to sound robotic.
The Executive Voice is Folgate's premium executive communications practice. It helps senior leaders sound like themselves, on their best day, whatever the format.
We don't manufacture a media persona. You already have a voice. We help you make it work for you.
Every format asks something different of a leader, and each one fails in its own way. We train for each arena on its own terms.
THE BROADCAST INTERVIEW
Live, adversarial, high-stakes. Message architecture, on-camera presence, and handling interruption without looking rattled.
THE LONG-FORM PODCAST
Uncut, intimate, a test of endurance. Narrative stamina, storytelling and depth across 30 to 90 minutes.
THE PANEL
Lateral competition for authority. Differentiated positioning and the one line the audience remembers.
THE EMPLOYEE TOWN HALL
Connecting with a crucial audience. Authentic authority, honest uncertainty and difficult questions handled with grace.
THE CRISIS MOMENT
Unscheduled, and the story is already running. Judgement under pressure, holding statements and the doorstep.
DIGITAL AND SOCIAL
How you show up here is how you show up almost everywhere. A written voice, comment engagement and reputation risk in AI-accelerated news cycles.
six arenas
what we believe
Genuine beats polished, every time. The work is using the voice you already have more intentionally.
Headline first. In every format, the point comes before the build-up.
Stories carry weight; facts alone don't. A story with a beginning, a stumble and a resolution travels further than a polished soundbite.
You're never alone with a microphone. On camera or off, on the record or off, the discipline doesn't switch off.
The real learning happens on playback. Seeing yourself as your audience sees you is where everything changes.
How it (Usually) works
Engagements typically open with a media audit: a producer-level read of how you have come across so far, your recent appearances and where the exposure lies.
Each training day then follows the same four-part arc, adapted to the arena:
YOUR STORY
Your topline, key messages and structure – and the other side of the argument.
YOUR BODY
Presence, posture and status for the room, the studio or the stage.
YOUR VOICE
Vocal technique, plus the specific craft each arena demands.
YOUR PERFORMANCE
Filmed practicals, first as a baseline and then pressure-tested, each followed by detailed playback and coaching.
Groups are deliberately small: as few as two for podcast sessions and no more than six for any module. The most senior engagements are one-to-one, with both trainers in the room. Every engagement ends with a personal debrief, a written summary and follow-up access to the faculty for 30 to 90 days.
ways to engage
SINGLE ARENA
A focused half or full day on the format that matters most to you right now.
CUSTOM PROGRAMME
Three arenas, chosen and sequenced around your calendar and your exposure.
FULL VOICE INTENSIVE
Two days across the arenas, for leaders stepping into a bigger public role.
We work with CEOs, board members, founders and senior leadership teams, in London and around the world. Where a challenge calls for it, we bring in subject-matter specialists from Folgate's network of more than 50 senior advisors.
SENIOR JUDGEMENT. BOTH SIDES OF THE CAMERA
The Executive Voice is co-led by Hannah Vaughan Jones and David Gallagher. Between them, they bring two decades in front of the camera at CNN International and Sky News, and three decades advising leaders and running global communications businesses.
One knows how a journalist, producer and host will approach you. The other knows how a board, a workforce and a market will read you. Together, they help leaders prepare for both.
Our principals
Hannah vaughan jones
David gallagher
Hannah Vaughan Jones (London)
Hannah Vaughan Jones is an Emmy-nominated journalist and broadcaster who spent two decades fronting 24-hour television news, presenting and reporting on politics, business and breaking news for CNN International and Sky News. In 2015 she founded Lewnah Ltd, offering broadcasting, hosting and moderating services in global health, energy, business and politics. She is a member of the McCain Institute's Global Leaders Advisory Council in the United States, Senior Counsel to health communications agency Incisive Health, and a Folgate advisor.
David Gallagher (London)
David Gallagher is co-founder of Folgate and brings three decades in global communications, with agency leadership roles across the US, UK and internationally, including as CEO of Ketchum Europe and in senior roles at Omnicom Group. He is past chair of the UK Public Relations and Communications Association and former president of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation. He holds the PRSA Atlas Award for Lifetime Achievement in International Public Relations and a SABRE Individual Achievement Award, and served on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Future of Media from 2012 to 2016. He is co-author of Truth Be Told (Kogan Page) and a past corporate advisor to the London School for Tropical Medicine and Hygeine, the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and Mothers To Mothers.
fiFIND YOUR EXECUTIVE VOICE
Whether you have a big interview coming up, a new role ahead or simply want to come across as well as you deserve to, we would welcome a conversation.