The award winners were honoured for their work within the military across the globe. The inaugural Operational Communicator of the Year award went to Captain Ranny Wei of the 71 City of London Signals Regiment who also works as a commercial banking relationship manager with HSBC.

Captain Wei’s first military deployment was to support a UK led NATO battlegroup exercise in Estonia last year, where he demonstrated exceptional leadership skills when dealing with crisis incidents and reputational management through Covid-19. He successfully improved the range of digital channels and coordinated several single service and defence communications campaigns including the highly successful ‘Clap for Carers’ output.

The Royal Navy Military Communicator of the Year award went to Lieutenant Commander Jeremy Olver, ministerial speechwriter and Royal Navy reservist. Lieutenant Commander Olver was recognised for his significant contributions to the Carrier Strike Group’s international comms campaign over the past year.

Embarking on the HMS Queen Elizabeth in September 2020 for six weeks of exercises with NATO partners in North Atlantic, Lieutenant Commander Olver was the focal point for media activity across a dispersed team of media specialists. He was tasked with delivering complex messaging for domestic and international audiences, during which time he increased the Commander Strike Group’s Twitter followership by 15.5k.  

The Army Military Communicator of the Year award went to Lieutenant Danielle Simmonds, a Royal Artillery officer based at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate. She was deployed at three days’ notice to be the media communications officer for the 8th Engineer Brigade to conduct critical Covid-19 testing for an entire town in Liverpool. Her role involved dispelling misinformation and maintaining a positive narrative throughout the operation involving 2,000 soldiers. A key part of the comms strategy was communicating the Army’s role in the operation without overstepping and creating friction between the NHS and Liverpool City Council.

Squadron Leader Stuart Smith was awarded the Royal Air Force Military Communicator of the Year Award for his role in leading the transformation of the Royal Air Force digital channels. This included the Inside Air podcast which excelled targets, integration of the RAF website with Twitter, and the delivery of media and comms training for hundreds of practitioners in the force. His biggest challenge was implementing a review of over 500 RAF social media accounts to deliver a controlled and appropriate response to the funeral arrangements for Prince Phillip, including a full black out to ensure formal sequences of mourning protocol were followed.

The inaugural Civil Servant Military Communicator of the Year award went to Mike Reader, head of internal communications at the RAF. Mr Reader led a variety of successful campaigns including the Covid-19 internal comms strategy, creation of a bespoke RAF hub for personnel on the RAF intranet and website, and a vaccination campaign for military personal.

The awards were presented by Former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff Chief Admiral Lord West at the Honourable Artillery Company in the City of London on September 30.