really fitted in there,” Gadher says.
“It’s a very white, middle-class profession. I was having a conversation with some colleagues who were
praising the virtues of AGA cookers in comparison with microwaves.
“I remember thinking, ‘One, I have to look up what an Aga is. Two, my parents were the first people to get
a microwave in our area and it was something to be proud of – our neighbours came to look at it.’ I realised I
was working in an organisation that was trashing microwaves and for me it was the first kind of sign that I
just didn’t belong there in the long term.
“When you know your career isn’t going to progress much further, it’s time to look for the next challenge.”
A decade later her own agency Riot Communications, which specialises in culture and entertainment, made
the PRWeek Power Book 2019, a list of the top 100 communication professionals in the UK.
Clients now include Moomin Characters, World Book Day, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and
Waterstones.
I did have that sense of ‘Can I do this? Can I make it when there are no other role models?’
The agency also masterminded the PR campaign for Yuval Noah Harari’s international bestseller Sapiens, A
Brief History of Humankind, which passed the 1 million global sales mark and is reportedly one of Barack
Obama’s favourite books.
“I’ve never overtly experienced someone holding me back because I am not white or middle-class and I’ll
never know if someone decided not to work with me because I didn’t look like them,” Gadher says.
“But going from the publishing industry which is very white to the PR industry which is also very very
white, I think I did have that sense of ‘Can I do this? Can I make it when there are no other role models?’. It
does give you something to think about.
“When I was a child, my dad once told me how I’d have to work twice as hard as a white person to achieve
the same level of success. I refused to believe it was true, but I see how right he was now.
“I often hear a lot of casual chat about the fact that people have a particular job or they are on a particular
platform because they are non-white and it’s a box-ticking exercise. This makes me wonder whether people
think that you got to where you are because you’re just a number or a diversity quota. I feel like I have to
work really hard to show that I earned my right to be at this table.”
Gadher was born in Cardiff to Indian parents, while her grandparents were from east Africa. Her family
moved to southeast London when she was eight although she still considers herself Welsh and supports
their national rugby team.
Her passion for reading lead her to do an English degree at Sussex University and inspired her to start a
career in publishing. “I did toy with starting a career journalism but my brother is a journalist and I didn’t
want to copy him.“
At 27 we had that youthful confidence, and perhaps we were a bit naive. But we didn’t have any
responsibilities, no mortgage to pay or family. We felt like we could do anything