Jon Curtis

Jon Curtis from Newport in South Wales is a Marketing Manager who came to public prominence early in 2004 during his management of the 100 Welsh Heroes project on behalf of Culturenet Cymru.

Background
Culturenet Cymru Ltd. are a Welsh Assembly funded body based in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. Culturenet's aim was to raise awareness of the culture and history of Wales. In 2003 they embarked on a project called 100 Welsh Heroes which aimed to raise awareness of Culturenet through the running of a poll likely to generate huge public interest. Jon Curtis was appointed to run the project and given a target of achieving 50,000 votes. Curtis had previously worked as a marketeer in the financial, manufacturing and internet sectors and was appointed largely on his track record of creating and managing brands. Other staff employed on the project included David Jones and Allison Coleman.

Controversy
A sustained and highly visible marketing campaign created significant interest in the poll, which eventually led to it being recognised as Wales' largest ever online poll with 81,323 nominations annd votes . However, along with this success came a degree of controversy played out in the media and over the internet. Nationalist supporters claimed that the poll was rigged at the request of the Welsh Assembly Government to ensure a poltically acceptably winner, Neil Kinnock hit back claiming that Nationalists were rigging the result to see Owain Glyndwr declared the winner. Jon Curtis and media company TM Communications continued to defend the integrity of the poll against mounting media interest.

Aftermath
On the 1st March 2004 Aneurin Bevan was declared the winner, an audit of the poll followed in 2005 and cleared all involved of any wrong doing. The project website is still available as an educational resource. Jon Curtis continues to work as a Marketing Manager in the Welsh public sector.

Further Information
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