Harriet Gyamfuah

Harriet Adwoa Gyamfuah is the founder and public-relations director of a successful multidisciplinary creative agency, with more than fifteen years of experience in media and communications.

After returning from a three-night visit to Paris at 2 a.m. She learnt that she had been placed on a blacklist and was refused entry to Qatar for two years before being deported to London.

A call to her mother in Ghana in December 2019 marked a personal reconciliation with her origins. At thirty-seven, she recognised fully how deeply she valued her Ghanaian roots and upbringing.

Born in Guinea into a Ghanaian family, she was still an infant when her parents divorced and her mother, a nurse, moved to London after securing an opportunity through the National Health Service. She remained first with her Christian grandmother, while her brother lived with their Muslim father and learnt Arabic. At four, both children joined their mother in the United Kingdom and the family was reunited.

Her mother preserved Ghanaian customs despite the pressures of raising two children alone in Britain. As a child and teenager, however, she tried to conceal her African identity, mixed mainly with Caribbean classmates and sometimes claimed to be Jamaican. The African hairstyles her mother prepared became a source of bullying at school. Years later, she recognised that the traditions she had resisted were a source of strength and a defining part of her character.

After completing a bachelor’s degree in Production and Media Performance, she entered Britain’s fashion and magazine industries. Often the only Black woman in the workplace, she experienced being identified by race when colleagues forgot her name. The experience sharpened her adaptability, showed her the value of diversity and gave her the confidence to follow the example of a mother who had crossed borders and challenged expectation.

Her London career included work with Prada, Miu Miu, Nicole Farhi, Liberty London and Celine. She contributed to international campaigns in Milan, London and Paris during fashion weeks, covered regional and international fashion events and managed interviews with public figures at press conferences. The work established her in luxury public relations and provided the practical knowledge on which her later business would draw.

Professional running unexpectedly changed her direction. In January 2009, she travelled to Tunisia to train in warmer weather and helped a young woman she met at the hotel. Three months later, that acquaintance asked for a lift to a Qatar Airways open day at Heathrow. Recruiters invited her to interview as well, and within two days she had an offer. In August 2009, she left public relations in London and moved to Doha as a member of the airline’s cabin crew.

She worked for Qatar Airways until 2012, then chose to return to media and public relations. In Doha, she also worked as an editor at Abode magazine and developed a wide network among clients, companies and media organisations across Qatar and the Middle East. A short trip to Paris ended abruptly when she was refused re-entry to Qatar, placed on a two-year blacklist and deported to London.

Uncertain of her next step but determined not to alarm her family, she briefly pretended that she had returned to Doha. Her path instead led to Dubai and Sharjah, where circumstances changed from the security of an international career and five-star hotels to sleeping in a car park. Even after finding work, her income did not cover basic needs. She nevertheless remained convinced that the setback was temporary and that Qatar was the place to which she wanted to return.

Repeated redundancy eventually prompted her to create Creatives Amplified. The communications company produces traditional and digital public-relations work, social-media campaigns, corporate initiatives, talent management and visual content. She built the agency around the same impulse that had guided her employment: helping people, brands and organisations strengthen their public presence and contribute successfully to the work of others.

Her network brought together influencers, creators, visual storytellers and public figures. Through the agency, she developed press campaigns, media events, presentations and awards, securing coverage across print, television, digital broadcasting and online platforms. Her portfolio included work connected with Naomi Campbell, Prada, Celine and Liberty London, as well as projects in fashion, lifestyle and hospitality in Qatar.

A call to her mother in Ghana in December 2019 marked a personal reconciliation with her origins. She thanked her for preserving Ghanaian customs and recognised how deeply that upbringing had shaped her. She also offered public-relations services to the Ghanaian Embassy in Qatar without charge, using her professional experience to introduce Ghanaian heritage to a wider audience.

Her career ultimately brought together more than fifteen years in media and communications, experience across Europe and the Gulf, and a capacity to begin again after abrupt change. The relationships she once regarded simply as a personal gift became the foundation of an international professional life and an agency centred on amplifying the work of others.