“Year after year, the results show that reputation is built on performance people can see and trust.”
From quality to evidence
Sandra’s international career spans North America and Europe. It began at PA Management Consultants, where she organised study tours on Total Quality Management to leading organisations in the United States and Japan.
She went on to run her own European PR firm, Hayes Macleod, which won Best New Agency of the Year in 1989. That same year she moved into research, setting up the first international franchise for media analysis. Echo Research grew from it, and its own history dates its founding to 1989.
The question at the centre of her work has stayed the same ever since. What do the people who matter to an organisation really think of it, and what is that worth?
She co-wrote two Gold Papers for the International Public Relations Association, on quality and customer satisfaction and on professional accountability in PR evaluation. She has lectured on five continents.
Proving the priceless
Echo began with media analysis and grew into a full reputation business, from stakeholder research and risk monitoring to analysis of what large language models now say about a company. Its best known work is Britain’s Most Admired Companies, run with the London Stock Exchange. Peers and financial analysts rate around 260 companies across the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, and the study has tracked reputation for 36 years.
Sandra’s mission has been to move reputation from the communications department into the boardroom. Through Reputation Dividend, which Echo acquired in 2024, the firm shows how much of a company’s market value rests on what people believe about it. Its 2026 analysis put that figure at £841bn, or 28 per cent of the FTSE 350.
“Reputation becomes a shortcut to conviction.”Sandra Macleod, City AM, March 2026
She is an expert witness in reputation, called on in courts of law, and she was a founder of AMEC, the international association for the measurement and evaluation of communication. She is Visiting Professor of Reputation at New York University, speaks and writes widely on reputation, and is an Ambassador to the International Integrated Reporting Council.
The long view
In 2011 Sandra sold Echo to Ebiquity, and she left in 2013. She joined Reputation Dividend as a partner and director, the firm founded by the economist Simon Cole to put a number on reputation, and she ran her own advisory practice, Mindful Reputation, with the New York University academic John Doorley.
In 2018 she bought Echo back through Mindful Reputation. Six years later Echo and Reputation Dividend came together under one roof, joining the measurement of reputation to its value.
Her peers have marked the contribution. The Arthur W. Page Society gave her its Distinguished Service Award in 2018, and AMEC gave her the Don Bartholomew Award in 2020 for her global work on reputation management and measurement. She was the first international board member and trustee of the Institute for Public Relations in the United States.
She is Chief Chair of Judges for the Management Consultancy Association Awards and co-chairs the Page Honors Committee. She served as an independent non-executive on the Governance and Sustainability Board of Richemont, the Swiss luxury group.
In the City
Much of Sandra’s work lives in the Square Mile. Each year the winners of Britain’s Most Admired Companies are celebrated at the London Stock Exchange, and in January 2026 Octopus Energy was named the most admired company and Tufan Erginbilgiç of Rolls-Royce the most admired leader.
She writes for the City’s own paper. In City AM she has argued that boards should manage reputation with the same rigour as financial performance, because “markets are rewarding execution over explanation.”
She has been a strong supporter of the Team UK campaign led by Dame Susan Langley, the Lady Mayor of the City of London, which set out to shine a light on what makes the City and the UK a great place to invest. She has long been a Freeman of the City of London Guild of Public Relations.
She is part of the Group Partners Expert Network, where her evidence on trust and reputation gives the strategies Group Partners helps leaders build a firm footing in what their stakeholders actually believe.
The path
From quality study tours to putting a value on reputation.
- PA Management Consultants
Organises study tours on Total Quality Management in the United States and Japan.
- 1989
Her PR firm Hayes Macleod wins Best New Agency of the Year. She sets up the first international franchise for media analysis, the seed of Echo Research.
- IPRA
Co-writes two Gold Papers for the International Public Relations Association.
- AMEC
A founder of the international association for measuring communication.
- 2011
Sells Echo to Ebiquity, leaving in 2013.
- Reputation Dividend
Partner and director. Runs Mindful Reputation with John Doorley of New York University.
- 2018
Buys Echo back. Receives the Page Distinguished Service Award.
- 2020
Receives AMEC’s Don Bartholomew Award.
- 2024
Echo acquires Reputation Dividend.
- 2026
Britain’s Most Admired Companies marks 36 years. Echo’s analysis values reputation at 28 per cent of the FTSE 350.
- Now
Group CEO of Echo Research. Joins the Group Partners Expert Network.
In her own words
“Markets are rewarding execution over explanation.”
“Put simply, it helps capital decide where to go.”
“Those that fail to understand their reputation DNA are leaving a significant portion of their valuation to chance.”
“What’s striking this year is how clearly reputation aligns with resilience.”
“Every journey starts with a single step ... and this is such an important one to maintain.”
“Reputation is measurable and manageable.”