Get to know The Comms Smith

A smiling woman with blonde curly hair sitting at a wooden table in a modern, plant-filled office or coworking space, holding a tablet.

Hi, I’m Pauline, an internal communication specialist with 30 years’ experience helping businesses achieve their goals. I’m also known as The Comms Smith.

A woman with blonde hair wearing a white shirt is sitting at a wooden table, writing on a notepad. A bald man wearing glasses and a dark blue shirt is sitting across from her, engaged in conversation. They are in a modern office or coworking space with large windows, plants, and multiple tables and chairs in the background.

I believe work can be a great place to be

My passion is helping businesses succeed by using the power of internal communication to build cultures where people not only understand the strategy and what it means to them, they believe in it, too.

A business where employees know what’s expected of them, whatever their role.

A place that’s inclusive, that nurtures innovation, where people are respectful and the work is rewarding.

The sort of place you’d recommend to a friend as a great place to work.

Two women having a conversation indoors, with large windows showing a cloudy day and buildings outside.

The power of communication

This passion is the golden thread that’s woven throughout a lifetime career in communication, whether that’s helping employees through change, or working with leaders to bring their vision and strategy to life.

When done effectively, there’s no denying the magic communication can create.

Book a discovery call

Why work with me: hear from clients, colleagues and collaborators.
Nicola Cohen - Change Management Consultant

I worked with Pauline on a change project related to global team-based performance management. She is a consummate professional and has a wealth of experience and rare creativity that are hard to come by. I would totally recommend her as someone to work with on strategic and operational internal communication.
Ann Farndell - Communications & Client Experience Manager, BDO

Pauline provided excellent guidance around how to effectively communicate about the Leadership Hub, an online leadership development portal, including appropriate messages and the best channels to use to reach our audience. It was a pleasure working with her and I can highly recommend her for any communication and engagement related projects or work.
Pep Cipriano – COO, Peterborough Positive

Pauline is a first-class professional. She possesses an exemplary focus and dedication to all aspects of employer engagement and is a true expert in her craft. I've seen first-hand how the cultural landscape became more engaging, trusted and positive in an organisation thanks to Pauline's strategies. I'd work with Pauline again in a blink of an eye - she gets things done, changes mindsets and is a champion of effective two-way internal communications.
Christina Winquist – Global Director, EY

Pauline is an incredibly seasoned communications and engagement leader with endless creativity and an innate strategic focus. She elevated our approach and the business' perspective on the importance and impact of effective corporate comms.
Ian Luxford – Learning & Engagement Specialist, The Motivation Agency

Pauline skilfully blends precision with creativity, keeping complex and difficult projects on track whilst ensuring that the experience for stakeholders and participants is rich and valuable. A major strength is her ability to bring the right team of people together and getting real commitment from them. She is thorough, tenacious and rewarding to work with.
Anna Lee, Chair, Safer off the Streets

Pauline helped us to develop our communication plan, specifically in defining our audience groups and better understanding their needs. She also helped us think through our content and channel strategy and introduced us to professional bodies to support us going forward.
She is a true communications professional and we were very fortunate to have her on board.
Miriam Ryan, Employee Communications, De Beers Group

Working with Pauline is always a joy. She manages to take complex projects from her stakeholders, create defined, manageable timelines, and outline the key points of success. Working in a large, global, matrixed organisation, Pauline's strategic planning and change comms expertise was instrumental to the success of our cross-business, cross-functional projects.

She's honestly one of my favourite stakeholders and brilliant at coming up with solutions for those wonderful, last minute problems that plague Comms professionals. My absolute favourite thing is her planning and creativity: there were rarely any surprises from Pauline. Her ability to work within tiny budgets to come up with creative solutions has helped us endlessly.
Amber Stanley, Talent Strategist

It was a pleasure to work with Pauline. She’s a true strategic thinker with a practical and methodical approach. We worked together on a significant programme of global change within HR and she was excellent at asking the right questions to pull out all aspects of how different groups of the population would be impacted by the changes and corresponding messaging. She is confident in her knowledge and collaborative in approach.
Vicki Marinker, Candid Career Coach

Pauline is an internal communications specialist who is happy to use her talents to advise the most senior executives on their strategic communications, but who is also comfortable delivering programmes and managing channels. Pauline is a pleasure to work with.
Diane Roberts, HR Consultant

Pauline is an excellent communications specialist and was a key player in putting together and delivering the communication strategy on a number of change management projects and the implementation of SAP. She worked well with key stakeholders, provided innovative ideas to get some very difficult messages across. I highly recommend Pauline as a creative communications specialist.
Taryn Dunn, Director, Internal Communication & Change Management

Pauline crafts compelling and effective internal communication strategies. She’s a great storyteller with a creative approach to messaging and content development that resonates with all audiences. She has a proven track record and is both creative and detail-oriented.

My commitment to my profession

As a member of the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC), I invest in my continuous professional development (CPD) to ensure I provide my clients with the best service possible as an independent internal communication specialist. You can read more about what this means in practice here.

The IoIC is leading professional body dedicated exclusively to internal communication. For over 75 years, they’ve been the driving force behind excellence in the profession - helping organisations and individuals thrive through world-class internal communication standards.

This year (2025), I was very proud to become a Fellow of the IoIC, recognised for my sustained excellence and significant contribution to the profession over many years.

I reflect on my career journey in this blog, where I consider the growing importance of embracing AI in internal comms, and how I tackled imposter syndrome to take the step towards Fellowship.