Tributes to Peter Hehir - founder of one of Britain's largest public relations companies based right here in Banbury

Peter, who lived in Adderbury, started the consultancy in 1973 and guided it over the next 25 years to become one of the most highly rated communications groups in the UK. In the late 1980s / early 1990s Countrywide was voted "Consultancy of the Year" three times in four years and became the fourth largest PR businesses in the UK.

By the mid-1990s, nearly 250 staff were operating from offices in Oxfordshire, London, Leeds, Scotland, Paris and Brussels with over 100 people running a burgeoning business which had been expanded to include an advertising agency, graphic design studio and local newspaper.

The decision to start the business in Banbury was unusual at the time since most consultancies were then operating from London. However, Peter opted for north Oxfordshire to take advantage of Banbury's position as the leading cattle market in Europe and headquarters of the pioneering international cattle breeding operation, Farm Key, Countrywide's first client.

Although the company's first clients were in the food and agricultural sectors, it rapidly expanded to handle organisations as diverse as the plastics industry across Europe, ICI, Rolls Royce, Dairy Crest, Kraft General Foods, Castrol, the Department of Trade and Industry and Westminster Abbey (where the decision to appoint the consultancy had to be approved by Queen Elizabeth II!). All of these clients benefited from Countrywide's pioneering skills in crisis management, media training, environmental communications and change management.

Countrywide was acquired by Omnicom, the American advertising and communications group in 1995 and merged with its public relations subsidiary, Porter Novelli, when its head office shifted to London.

By the late 1990s, Porter Novelli had become the world's fourth largest communications group, but Peter always remembered the role played by the Banbury location in the early success of the business: "Before the merger the head office was always in Banbury. We were an Oxfordshire-based agency, not a London one. It gave us an advantage because there was always a stable, highly skilled, well-trained team delivering to tight deadlines," he said.

"In Banbury, we had a very low staff turnover so while the rest of the PR world was going through the heady days of the 1980s faced with people hopping from one job to another, we managed to sit that out and invest in an excellent training programme."

Peter had always intended to retire at 55 so, in 2000, he left the company to live with his wife in New Zealand only to find himself back in the PR business two years later having worked with three other senior practitioners to set up Senate SHJ, now one of Australasia's leading communications businesses.

A person who focused on people and encouraged innovative thinking, Peter's love for communication and problem solving was matched only by his love of his family, golf, football and his beloved West Bromwich Albion football team.

Peter died in Oxford after a long illness which had prevented him returning to his Wellington home for many years. He is survived by his wife Alison, his sons, Alex, Stuart and Christopher, stepdaughter Amanda and grandchildren, Molly, Joe, Harry and Luna - as well as Smokey, the dog.