Spend some time in Alan Hamerman's company and you’ll think you are in an episode of the West Wing. Fast-talking and passionate, he lives and breathes news, politics and public affairs. "I am consumed by newspapers - online and offline - by hard and soft news," he says. "It’s an obsession, but a healthy one... I think..."
He views his international clients as family, such is the intimacy and intensity of his relationships with them. "I share their thirst and passion for individual freedom," he says. "I admire their zest and appetite for life. With them, the job is unrelenting, but I like that."
He has a reputation for working with feisty and colorful personalities, from Polish business tycoon Jan Kulczyk to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, from Imelda Marcos to Russia's Bill Gates-Vladimir Yeutushenkov, winning their trust and working tirelessly on their behalf. Alan works now with President Gorbachev on his Green Cross environmental Foundation. ''It is fascinating being close to powerful people and seeing them at moments of triumph and vulnerability, as human beings who have made it to the top and battle every day to stay on top,'' he says.
Born into a middle-class, suburban family in New York, Hamerman was the eldest of three children. His Russian/German grandparents gave him an international outlook and a sense that he should do "something winning and meaningful" with his life.
After graduating from journalism school at Columbia University, he worked for PR company Ogilvy & Mather for several years. But with a passion for politics, Hamerman couldn’t resist the lure of working for leading political consultant David Garth. Hamerman poured his energies into running campaigns for the "aggressive, outspoken and energetic" Mayor Koch, who governed New York from 1978 to 1989. Hamerman also travelled to the Philippines, Malaysia and Africa, advising parties and politicians on how to run political campaigns and win elections.
"I enjoyed being parachuted into countries to meet political hopefuls," says Hamerman. "There was a huge appetite for political operatives like us. Growing democracies wanted to see these skills in action - not just for more democracy but for greater stability."
In 1992, Hamerman relocated to Manila, Philippines, to advise President Ramos. Then it was on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to work for Dr Mahathir. Next stop, London, where Hamerman worked for top US pollster Stan Greenberg and for New Labour architect Philip Gould. In 1999, Lord Bell poached him for Lowe Bell.
Revelling in his image as an outsider - he is the only American in the company and has no British clients - Hamerman does not have a lot of time for hobbies, apart from squash and tennis. Work and travel are his grand passions and he shares the general Sans Frontières view that the company "should be a force for good in the world – using power to ease change for the better."
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