Paul Bell is Chief Executive of the Bell Pottinger Sans Frontieres group of companies.
Born in London and raised in Cape Town, Bell studied Politics and History at UCT and involved himself in student politics and protest. "If you were a sentient being in South Africa, it was impossible not to have a political point of view." On leaving university he joined the Rand Daily Mail, a Johannesburg newspaper renowned for its anti-apartheid stance, managing its news department until shortly before it closed. He then became Political Correspondent of Business Day. He then worked for the political journal ‘Leadership’ for 13 years. As its Executive Editor, he came into contact with leading figures in the Government, the anti-apartheid resistance, and business.
"South Africa was a pretty fractured society and newspapers introduced me to all sides of it," he says. "I’ve been to riots, I’ve had stones thrown at me. I’ve met the saints and the sinners of change: people who suffered imprisonment and privation but went on to play significant roles in changing their country for the better, and other people who committed murder in the name of peace or security or freedom. I watched Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk sign a new constitution into law and saw people weeping for their dead in inter-tribal wars. When you see a society in transition at first hand, the learning is immense, at times frightening, but also inspiring ."
For a time in the mid-1980s he helped organize a musical talent search of South Africa’s townships on behalf of an international oil company. "This was enormously rewarding - giving these kids opportunities they had never had before," he says. "Despite the racism, violence and poverty which blighted their lives, their exuberance was irrepressible and life-affirming."
In 1994/5, he was appointed Director of Communications for the South African Electoral Commission, overseeing the country’s first ever democratic elections. "It gave me huge satisfaction to play a part in that," he says.
Bell joined Bell Pottinger in 2000. "I had to decide whether I was just going to observe the world, or to act in it. I chose the latter," he says. From 2004, through the Special Projects division, he directed Sans Frontieres’ work in the Middle East, "advancing the democratic agenda".
"Business has to be about more than money," he says, "and politics has to be about more than power. Pursuing either, you have to maintain a clear-eyed view of how your actions affect the lives of ordinary people, and a deep interest in producing outcomes that work for them. If you’re just paying lip-service to the interests of ordinary stakeholders, people quickly see through you. It’s about building up moral and social capital alongside economic capital; I like to believe that, among the many things we do for our diverse and fascinating set of clients, we help them understand that and respond to it."
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