Fitting the Role to a Tee

Golf enthusiast

handicaps, receiving

They say discretion is the better part of valour. It’s also one of the key qualities of a top PR/marketing expert like Jane Wells, founder of prestigious JComms. Talking after she had spent a morning on the golf course and lunched in her club, Jane Wells (65) agrees that her business requires integrity and says it shouldn’t really be described, even jokingly, as the ‘dark art’. “Integrity and discretion are key to good marketing, also truthfulness. Reliability too. Our new MD Chris Harrison is one of the best people I’ve ever worked with, full of ideas and so reliable. If he says he’ll do something, you know it will get done.”

Deftly, she fields questions on the future of the Monarchy but is clearly very enthusiastic about the value of her new part-time job. She is one of around twenty deputies who support Lord Lieutenant Dame Fionnuala Jay O’Boyle. “Currently there are about 23 of us, Fionnuala gives us duties that are suited to our skills. She’s the first port of call but if somebody needs representation, she will call on us.” Recently Ms Wells has visited a minesweeper in Belfast port. “I loved boarding the vessel which was actually quite small.”

Naturally, we turn to the Royal event of the year, King Charles’ coronation on May 6. I wondered what this Deputy Lord Lieutenant would be up to and whether she would hold or attend a party. “It hasn’t been totally worked out yet but I shall be glued to the television and there might be other things. “There may well be champagne.”

Another cork-popping moment was when Ms Wells received her gong. Jane says now it was fabulous but a surprise. “It came as a complete shock. You get a letter six weeks before the event, asking you if you want to accept the honour, and that it is totally confidential. I couldn’t tell a soul about it.” She reveals that she didn’t even breathe a word to her husband, retired doctor Martin, or her three children; Sian, Duncan and Petra. But Jane was able to tell them on her birthday, December 24, and the happy ceremony took place at Windsor Castle on January 31st this year. Jane and Martin flew to London the day before to attend an opera at Covent Garden, as this musical genre is one of her passions. “We saw The Magic Flute and it was superb.” Discussing the rather eye-watering high cost of opera seats there,

Jane Wells says this underlines how fortunate we are here to have the internationally recognised Northern Ireland Opera to satisfy our need for super-dramatic plots and loud arias. “Interestingly, the first director of NI Opera, Oliver Mears, is now in charge at Covent Garden, and we have the genius Cameron Menzies at the helm here. I hope he stays a long time.” Not just a fan in the stalls, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant is an enthusiastic member of the Board.

Wells was thrilled that the new King Charles presented her with her gong. Apparently he was charming. “To be honest, I was very nervous just beforehand.” Award recipients are ushered across the room, get their medal (“They pin a hook on your outfit so he can easily slot on the beautiful medal.”) Etiquette requires you to have a conversation with the monarch. “I did wonder what we’d talk about but needn’t have worried. I received it for services to PR and charity and King Charles was very interested. They tell you the conversation is finished when he shakes your hand, then you have to walk away backwards.”

We discuss the sartorial implications for this very important event. “I didn’t go to the shops but went to Una Rodden’s wonderful studio. I bought a navy coat-dress, then found a hat, but discovered it wasn’t quite the right shade as I didn’t realize there are a lot of different shades of navy.” This was no problem to Rodden who deployed some fabric paint. “I was just worried it was going to rain,” Jane says now with a laugh.

Wells selects as one of her proudest PR moments working in Brussels with the late David Trimble. “He was one of three MEPs from here, working with John Hume and Ian Paisley. What impressed me was the way they got on and worked well together. Later I was lucky enough to be tasked with organising the events when Mr Trimble and John Hume got the Nobel peace prize in 1998.” This involved working on receptions, the drink and food, and they were very successful… Originally a French teacher, when she hit thirty, Jane Wells decided she’d taught enough conditional verbs at schools in the Caribbean and Belmont and needed new stimulation. “I gained a work experience post with John Laird and loved it from the start. When there was a vacancy for a junior account executive, I got the job.” Wells mentions, with pride, founding a pioneering organisation that promoted Northern Ireland via food (“we had cheeses and so on”) as well as its organisations.

Later in the 1990s she started at JComms, which handles a range of significant accounts and is also involved in public sector lobbying. She recalls with pride the way her company took on the World Police & Fire Games in 2013, when toned guys from other countries seemed to have overtaken the town. “We promoted it as the friendliest ever games, due to its location here, and that worked very well.”

Jane’s business partner for much of that time was noted food critic and political analyst Joris Minne. They were contemporaries at Queen’s University and met up again at a networking event. “We sat next to each other, caught up, then I just asked if he’d like to join us.” He did, is now Chair of the company, and the rest is marketing history. They have successfully promoted a range of clients, including The Ulster Museum, arts festivals and The Belfast Telegraph group. Jane Wells says; “We complemented each other well. Joris is brilliant and a natural front man.” He returns the compliment, telling me: “When I first met Jane Wells in 1977, I thought she was one of those Sloane Rangers, ie posh, jolly hockey sticks and Pimms. But when I saw her selling tickets and taking money at the door for nighttime gigs across

EDITED BY JANE HARDY

Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I knew I had got her all wrong”.

He adds: “Jane has endless energy which I envy her and her irrepressible can-do sense of optimism is frankly inspiring. She’s kept me going at times when I would have given up. I’m lucky to have her as a friend as well as a workmate.”

In her spare time, Jane Wells relaxes on Malone golf course where she spends quite a bit of time. “Oh, three times a week and I have lessons from the man I call my golf therapist, Phil Murphy.” The sportiness extends to other sports and not many people realise Jane Wells was an award-winning water skier in her youth who represented Ireland. To this day, when on holiday with children Sian, Duncan and Petra, she can surprise fellow occupants of the beach who may see a middle-aged woman, not suspecting that once behind the boat on the water, she’ll outstrip them all with ease.

While not exactly a foodie, Jane Wells relishes a good meal at a restaurant with her husband. She patronises Northern Ireland Opera and recently enjoyed one of their intimate salon series concerts at Hillsborough Castle.

Wells says her role in the Lieutenancy is to help promote Belfast and to encourage local business as well as the integration of the diverse new groups in town. “There was a big Lieutenancy lunch at one of Belfast’s Chinese restaurants, Lee Garden, to celebrate the oldest Northern Irish immigrant group.”

She says that Deputy Lord Lieutenants have to retire at seventy whether they want to or not. You sense the next five years in this exciting voluntary role will be a very fulfilling, rather than a bumpy, ride.