Rachel Aked began her career, after studying History of Art at University, training to be an auctioneer in Bristol, however decided that the world of public/ media relations was what really interested her. She decided to contact the major international auction houses for advice on how to get into PR and was offered a summer placement at Sotheby’s in 1997, which she thoroughly enjoyed and will never forget the first Impressionist Sale she attended! After working at the BBC as a researcher on ‘Going for a Song’.

She returned to Sotheby’s to manage the PR for Sotheby’s saleroom in Sussex and then moved to Sotheby’s Olympia, where she was instrumental in the launch of the new saleroom. Over the years, she worked in a range of auctions from house sales to the annual Scottish sale at the Gleneagles Hotel through to a wide range of collectors’ sales including garden statuary, vintage fashion and entertainment & sporting memorabilia.

After seven years at Sotheby’s, Rachel moved to be a PR Manager at First Choice Holidays, promoting the variety of holidays/ destinations that they offered. This involved working closely with the national travel writers. Three years later, she went to work for VisitBritain in the International Destination team, working closely with their network of overseas press officers in 37 countries to handle media requests and assist with journalists’ visits to the UK. The team organised over 1,000 visits a year. She spent a great deal of time with NBC filming iconic locations of the UK for their coverage during the Olympics in 2012. She still works for them on a regular basis and is just finishing a project with Harpers Bazaar China who are bringing over a famous actor to do a photo shoot on Dartmoor!

Since 2008, Rachel has worked as a Freelance PR consultant and has worked for numerous auctioneers, many of who used to be at Sotheby’s, and continues to do so. Each year in March, since 2012, she has handled the PR around the launch of the annual visitor figures for the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions which achieved substantial coverage on a regional and national level – invariably including the BBC Breakfast Business Feature focussing on the results and arranging an outside broadcast at an ALVA member.

For five years, she did the PR for the annual and extremely popular ‘Open Garden Squares Weekend’, a charity event, which sees 200 private squares in London open for the weekend – this involved working with a variety of media from BBC Gardeners World – who came to film at No. 10 Downing Street - through to arranging live weather reports with Carol Kirkwood on BBC Breakfast.  In 2010, she worked on a project with sculptor Nick Fiddian-Green, who unveiled an extremely large sculpture of a horses’ head in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot and another one at London’s Marble Arch – which is still there.

Over the past few years, she has also worked for English Heritage, planning and managing the communications for the acquisition of JW Evans Silver Factory in Birmingham as well as acting as a Communications Manager, looking after the North West and North East of England.

She also has a strong interest in Antiques and over the past few years has worked on the PR for the Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia and the Antiquarian Book Fair – both involved generating national and international press coverage. She has also worked on exhibitions for Art and Antiques Dealers which has resulted in profile and interiors features in publications such as the magazine of the Daily Telegraph on Saturday and English Home.

In 2018, she has started working in the PR for West Dean College of Arts and Conservation as well as Mayfair auctioneer Dix Noonan Webb.

Rachel has lived in Arundel for almost 20 years and enjoys getting involved in the community –and has worked on the PR (on a national and local level) for the Arundel Food Festival. In the past year – a group AKIN (akinarundel.com) has been formed after recognising the commercial creative talent in the town, and until recently Rachel was the Vice-Chair.