Perth public relations luminary Paul Downie has passed away after a brief illness, aged 65.
Perth public relations luminary Paul Downie has passed away after a brief illness, aged 65.
Mr Downie’s reputation in the world of PR was built through the 1990s and 2000s, when he worked closely within a growing Forrest business empire at Anaconda Nickel and Fortescue Metals Group among a suite of high-profile businesses.
A former journalist who started in the field in 1983 and worked with The Australian, The West Australian and the Stock & Land, Mr Downie would go on to establish PR firm Porter Novelli Perth alongside Caroline De Mori during the 1990s.
Ms De Mori – who later founded Purple with Warrick Hazeldine – sold her stake in that business to John McGlue in its early days, and Messrs Downie and McGlue ran the agency until its acquisition by Financial Dynamics, a subsidiary of FTI Consulting, in 2008.
Ms De Mori told Business News that Mr Downie was a larger than life presence.
"He was just so much fun, and he lifted every room he was in," she said.
"He was very sanguine about his health and what was happening.
"Paul was just a lovely human being with a beautiful family, and I don't have a bad word to say about him."
Mr McGlue said the news of his close friend's death was heartbreaking, but that Mr Downie had faced his illness with courage.
“He was a highly intuitive advisor,” he told Business News.
"I saw him in situations with big boards and billionaires, and his intuition was always extremely fine-tuned and valuable.
“That extended into his professional life advising some of the famous and the infamous, because we had some of the infamous on our list from time to time.
“But I think his great quality and skill was that he understood the psychology at work in corporate situations.”
Mr McGlue said he and Mr Downie had been in discussions around future business opportunities as recently as this year.
After a brief sabbatical following the sale of Porter Novelli, Mr Downie was engaged to run strategic communications for Financial Dynamics before being tapped to relocate and revamp the FTI’s Sydney office.
He was appointed as FTI Consulting’s Asian chairman of strategic communications from 2013, based in Singapore, and worked in the role until his eventual retirement in 2022.
FTI senior managing director of strategic communications Cameron Morse told Business News that Mr Downie would be remembered fondly by those he worked with.
“Paul was widely known and well respected among the Perth business community,” he said.
“While he will no doubt be remembered for his gregarious nature and love of life, many clients, colleagues and friends benefited from his wise counsel throughout Paul’s professional career.”
Reflecting Mr Downie’s connections, geniality and willingness to innovate, in the early 2000s he was integral in founding a regular forum for Perth business journalists known as the Rason Club which operated for several years.
Paul Downie (second from right) at a Rason Club event in the 1990s, alongside Business News senior editor Mark Pownall, Purple investor relations director Peter Klinger and Albemarle head of external affairs Tom Baddeley. Photo: supplied
In retirement, Mr Downie sat on the board of Perth Festival where he was appointed in 2023.
He was an avid long-distance swimmer who had crossed the English Channel.
Mr Downie leaves a wife and three children.
