Main Story • News • UK  »   The Saga of Paul Blanchard and the Abuse of Madelaine Hanson
Paul Blanchard
Paul Blanchard. Source: Financial Times, Flickr.

The Saga of Paul Blanchard and the Abuse of Madelaine Hanson

Monday, May 25, 2020 | Written by | 7 Comments

Madelaine Hanson published her story of an abusive boss on Medium. They forced her to remove any identifying details. That boss was Paul Blanchard.

Paul Blanchard is the owner of PR company Right Angles, which Madelaine Hanson worked for between September 2018 and November 2019. Given that PR is about, well, reputation, this story should be of serious concern to those who employ him to manage his reputation.

The screenshots below illustrate the story, outlined on Madelaine’s Medium page, of how he withheld from her £29,000 of wages.

Madelaine reaches out after having resigned, and discovering that she was not paid as she had believed.
Paul, aware that she had not been fully checking her accounts, feigns confusion.
After some further clarification, Paul begins to establish a reason for withholding the money further: blaming her for a loss of their clients.
Madelaine discovers that the money has been going into somebody else’s bank account.
Madelaine contacts her boss’s bank and they propose a straightforward solution.
Despite being presented with the simple solution above, Paul continues to blame Madelaine for the issue, and again suggests that she is responsible for the departure of their clients.
Almost a week later, Madelaine attempts to follow up on the missing payments.
Paul continues to stall, requests that Madelaine discuss the issue with him rather than his accountant, and at this point lays the entire blame on Madelaine’s shoulders.
Madelaine’s patience rightfully starts to fray.
Paul’s tone begins to shift.
Madelaine points out the obvious.
Wow. Just, wow.
Madelaine remains cool and collected in the face of Paul’s abusive tirade.
Paul confirms again that he is deliberately withholding Madelaine’s earnings.
As other staff members begin to leave, Paul continues to blame Madelaine for the crumbling of his empire.
Over the course of a long email, Madelaine takes apart Paul’s insistence that she was responsible for him losing clients.
With few options left to her, Madelaine formally reports her former boss Paul Blanchard to the police.
After learning that Paul has lost previous legal disputes and yet has avoided paying out what he owes, Madelaine is forced to reach out to the media. This is the final communication sent from Madelaine to Paul Blanchard. As of the publishing of this article she has not received her earnings.
Paul decided to confirm Madelaine’s characterisation of him in direct communication with us.
We were, naturally, delighted.
No further communication has been shared.
We end this article with four testimonies sent to Madelaine from other former employees of Paul.

Since publishing, further documents have been made available to us.

Team members were aware of Madelaine’s health issues.
Paul claimed to be able to provide access to the World Economic Forum to his clients.

We reached out to the World Economic Forum for comment and this was their reply:

We don’t have a relationship with him and Forum membership and partnership is the responsibility of the Forum and no one else.

Amanda Russo, Head of Media Content, World Economic Forum
Uncommon Ground Contributor

This author has not submitted a biography yet.

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Article Discussion

  • Posted by Mark Thomas

    6 June, 2020 at 12:39 pm

    Two thoughts - M should have checked her bank account regularly - But - when it came to light, P has shown what unpleasant scummy individual he really is. His blog states that he tells clients "the first rule of crisis communication is that prevention is better than cure". He certainly didn't follow his own advice - entered into an abusive email exchange with M rather than just paying what she was owed and moving on. What a clown! Hopefully any international player worth anything will see this fraudster for what he is. PR guru my arse!

    Reply

  • Posted by Andy

    28 May, 2020 at 9:28 pm

    What a fucking liar. He defrauded a client with attending the WEF 2020. Fucking hell. Lock him up

    Reply

  • Posted by Paul Blanchard

    26 May, 2020 at 5:57 am

    Yeah, I did it. So what? You fell for it.

    Reply

  • Posted by Winnie

    26 May, 2020 at 2:17 am

    lol ive seen an email where he calls the '120k client' "naïve"...fail. Apparently he tried to defraud the client and freaked when madelaine was a witness. Also he told her that the client had fired him at the start of the email thread. How could she 'steal' him if he'd been fired by the client. Guy is a pathological liar.

    Reply

  • Posted by Madelaine

    26 May, 2020 at 1:29 am

    Employee reviews: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Right-Angles-Reviews-E2389905.htm

    Reply

  • Posted by Anthony Van Ho

    25 May, 2020 at 9:04 pm

    What a complete and utter douchebag! I hope Hanson and her coworkers take this human garbage to court, and that media picks up this story and runs with it. This sociopathic fecal matter needs to be destroyed.

    Reply

  • Posted by John

    25 May, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    wow what a monster hopefully he goes to jail...clients dont fund his abuse...

    Reply

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