The cream-colored Mayfair townhouse that serves as Hakluyt's headquarters has little to distinguish it from the outside other than a brass plaque bearing the company name.
But this is exactly how the bosses of a secret company work, given the confidential nature of their work.
Founded by a group of former MI6 spies after the Cold War, the consultancy firm, which took its name from Richard Hakluyt, an Elizabethan geographer, at one stage acquired a reputation for recruiting old spies who wanted to top up their pensions.
Today, however, the «about us» page on Haklut's website reads more like a who's who of the establishment, boasting former chairmen of multinational companies, retired diplomats and globe-trotting bankers.
For a large fee, the firm will use its powerful connections to gather information for clients on the most intricate corporate or geopolitical issues before presenting it in concise, easy-to-read analysis.
Hakluyt claims to work with 40% of the world's largest companies and three-quarters of the 20 largest private equity firms: “For over 25 years, the CEOs of many of the world's most prestigious companies and most successful investment firms have sought our help. judgments, ideas and advice we provide in a variety of situations.»
And now, if reports are to be believed, Sir Keir Starmer's Labor Party has joined the list of organizations seeking a helping hand.
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Amid the opposition's ongoing efforts to attract business, a consultancy has been asked to facilitate meetings, according to Bloomberg between Labor and senior leaders.
Hakluyt downplayed the network, insisting he does not take on political clients, and the Labor Party declined to comment.
However, tapping into the firm's network could be a smart move as Sir Keir is likely to meet plenty of familiar faces as well as new ones.
Hakluyt is led by Lord Deighton, an influential businessman and former minister in David Cameron's government, who is also chairman of Heathrow Airport and the Economist Group.
He is one of several influential figures on the payroll, along with former Unilever executive and chairman Niall Fitzgerald, immunologist and government adviser Professor Sir John Bell, former HSBC chairman and current Abrdn chairman Sir Douglas Flint, former GCHQ director Sir Ian Lobban, former Chairman Sony Shuzo Sumi and Mark Wiseman, former managing director of Blackrock, are members of the international advisory board.
Meanwhile, recent hires from the world of politics include Dan Rosenfield, a former civil servant who served as Boris Johnson's chief of staff, Sir Oliver Robbins, a civil servant who was Theresa May's «Brexit Sherpa», and Jamie Hope, a former Brexit adviser security Liz Truss.
Chris Inglis, former deputy director of the US National Security Agency and Joe Biden's first national cyber director, joined us last month.
Look closely and you'll also find a few connections to Labor the consignment.
With an election just around the corner, tapping into the Haklut network could be a smart move for Sir Keir Starmer. Photo: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire
Varun Chandra, Haklut's media-savvy managing director, has Labor connections and worked at Lehman Brothers before helping Sir Tony Blair set up his old consultancy firm.
The firm also employs Baroness Vadera, former Labor Secretary and economic adviser to Gordon Brown, and Emily Benn, granddaughter of Tony Benn. who worked for Jonathan Powell, Blair's former chief of staff.
Such connections are in high demand as British businesses look to align themselves with the party most likely to win the next election, says Dominic Church, managing director of WA Communications.
“What we see is a Labor Party that is very pro-business and courting business,” says Church. “Clients want to understand what the Labor Party's political position is and what the direction is, and they really like meetings.”
“It's not just public relations firms such as WA that act as a liaison in this regard between Labor and business, but also a host of consultancies, law firms and advisory firms.»
Despite Tuesday's report However, Hakluyt denied he would work directly with the Labor Party or any political party.
A source close to the firm insists that while it has convened meetings in the past attended by senior Labor Party politicians and other guests, they were not organized on behalf of the Labor Party.
This may not be a bad thing for Labor's finances either, given the notoriously high fees Hakluyt is said to charge.
One source familiar with the consulting firm says they are “expensive—ridiculously expensive.”
“They are a bit like McKinsey: they will go and do a lot of digging and give you a report if you are a large corporate decision maker,” the source adds.
Another executive at a rival company once told the Financial Times: “I always joke that they [Hakluyt] added an extra zero to the bill.”
A few years ago, in a rare interview with an insider Hakluyt said: «We are here to answer specific questions: what is the real agenda, who is in whose pocket and what is the role of certain people.»
One person who works in the legal field and has had experience with the nature of Haklut's work compares him to intelligence gatherers such as K2 Integrity and G3, pointing out that although they are surrounded by mysticism, what they do is straightforward and tends to includes preparing general summaries for clients.
“There is a formula,” says the lawyer. «They are usually filled with former spies, and their councils are filled with the lords and ladies of the kingdom.
«Witches gather intelligence, and lords and ladies provide respectability.»
In Hakluyt's case, the firm's rare appearances in the spotlight sometimes reinforced its opaque image.
In 2011, the company was linked to Neil Heywood, a British businessman whose sudden death in China raised suspicions.
Heywood worked occasionally as a consultant to Hakluyt, and the Chinese authorities blamed him for the death by alcohol poisoning, despite the fact that he had no reputation as a drunkard. His body was quickly cremated without a post-mortem examination.
At one stage, Wang Lijun, a former Chongqing police chief and friend of Heywood, suggested that he might have been poisoned over a business dispute.< /p>
Meanwhile, Haklut's investigations also did not always go according to plan. In 2002, one of the firm's reports was at the center of a High Court libel case involving allegations that read like «the plot of the latest James Bond novel.»
Scottish oil company Ramco hired Hakluyt to investigate. Czech tycoon Karel Komárek and his father.
Haklut's report concluded that the Komárek family were «untouchable and corrupt crooks and gangsters, ready to kill anyone who stood in their way.»
The serious allegations were believed to be false because Ramco made no attempt to prove them, and Komárek later sued for libel, unsuccessfully, after a judge ruled that the defendant had no dishonesty or improper motive.
Komárek has vehemently denied the baseless allegations and continues to deny them outright.In another case, it was alleged that the firm hired a German agent to spy on Greenpeace while doing corporate work for Shell and BP in 2001.
Manfred Schlickenrieder, codenamed «Camus», was paid thousands of pounds to pose as a left-wing film director and report on fellow activists and their plans to stage protests.
BP and Shell have always maintained that they knew nothing about the operation.
With elections around the corner, Sir Keir may soon need such invaluable information himself.
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< p>Fortunately for him – or unfortunately, depending on your point of view – Sir Oliver “Ollie” Robbins, Theresa May’s former Brexit negotiator, has been working in Hakluyt since March.It is understood that Robbins is already advising Labor on an informal basis. He is also reportedly in the running for a top government position if the party wins.
On Tuesday, Hakluyt gave a typically terse answer when asked whether he was cooperating with Labour.
p>< p>“The Labor Party is not one of Haklut’s clients. We do not work for political parties,” the representative said.
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