The Henshall Centre was established in 1988 by Keith and Maureen Henshall. It is now the UK’s largest independent trainer in the craft and management of public relations.
Keith Henshall worked in advertising in Manhattan following the two years of full-time study at both Manchester Business School and the New York University Graduate School of Business (now the Stern School of Business) that led to his MBA. He later moved into public relations in the UK, handling significant international names like Shell, BUPA, Arthur Andersen, Ferranti and Brother. He eventually sold the agency he started to Charles Barker. At that time Charles Barker was publicly quoted and was the second largest UK PR firm.
Keith also served for twelve years on the council of Institute of Public Relations, including two years as its national education chairman. He was then elected to serve as its 1995 national president, appearing frequently on TV and leading the CIPR's evidence to the parliamentary committee on standards in public life.
Maureen Henshall lectured in education theory and was a head teacher. From the outset the Centre has used techniques informed by Maureen's professional teaching disciplines, like lesson planning and teacher training, to ensure consistency across time and space. Many of the Centre's customers operate in several countries. These disciplines ensure that courses which have the same name also deliver the same content, updated only for changes in technology, no matter where or when the course is taken. Sadly, this essential discipline is frequently missing from quite prominent training providers in the PR training market.
These teaching disciplines became extremely important once the Henshall Centre also began to operate outside the UK.