Jonathan Choat passed away surprisingly at the end of last year and the 30th January a celebration of his life was held at The Belvedere, in London, attended by many friends and family. Luis Gonzalez was one of the speakers representing IPRN and this were his words:
Jonathan Choat was the best ambassador of the Public Relations industry, a profession born in the UK and exported all over the world. He was the leader of the International Public Relations Network for more than 15 years, my predecessor, supporter, supervisor and friend.
I can’t think of a better representative of a PR professional; authentic, creative, experienced, wise and warmth. Our 50 members in more than 40 countries worldwide will remember Jonathan as an enthusiastic supporter of our industry and profession, that he contributed to make it stronger, wider and more credible, as the head of Nexus and as General Secretary of IPRN. This was his favorite title, to combine the power of the communist parties head with the warmth and humor of his British style, as he wanted to say.
IPRN will miss Jonathan knowledge, creativity, energy, quick-witted personality and British sense of humor. As a genuine representative of a charismatic English Gentleman, a true PR professional, an expert and sensible agency manager he was always hungry to learn about other cultures and celebrate international friendships.
He left a great legacy in IPRN; always excited to come to all our Annual General and Regional Meetings, Conferences and events, inspire, debate and mentor with colleagues, have fun, keep learning from the younger talent and make sure to give his best advice to our nice ladies as this is a profession with a lot of charismatic personalities, many of them women.
In the last annual conference last May in Warsaw we were lucky to nominate Jonathan Honorary and Lifetime Board Member, our highest recognition, after Harvey told me: Luis, this might be the last conference Jonathan is coming, so we organized a special homage and gave him a beautiful present handover by the Polish President that was our guest in the annual gala of IPRN.
By Harvey’s words I understood he was willing to be recognized in our organization as the new executive head of Nexus and representative in IPRN and to some extent been liberated of his granddad shadow but I was sure Jonathan was going to be with us forever, and supervising both of us.
We are going to miss Jonathan in Lisbon 2020 during the celebration of the 25th anniversary of IPRN but he will continue with us in a special memorial.
His loss has made a great impact to all the IPRN family, friends and members. Our best homage to Jonathan Choat is to continue making the PR profession great and IPRN stronger, better and bigger in his memory.
Thank you Jonathan from all that we learn from you.