Alex Aiken
Executive Director, UK Government Communications
Alex is based in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, he is the most senior communications professional in the Civil Service. His role covers government communications strategy, management of the Cabinet Office and No.10 operation and leadership of the profession.
He was Director of Communications & Strategy at Westminster City Council, 2000-13. At Westminster he built a team that was recognised to be the best in local government and a created a successful consultancy operation providing services to other organisations.
Before joining Westminster he held senior posts at Conservative Central Office, leading the Party’s Campaigns Unit from 1999-2000 and the Press Office between 1995 and 1999. He has trained politicians and officials in newly democratic states around the world in communications techniques.
Fadl Al Tarzi
CEO, SocialEyez, and Chief Strategy Officer, News Group International
Fadl launched SocialEyez under the News Group umbrella and successfully grew the company from two people to over 120 across multiple countries; today SocialEyez is recognized as a leading social media agency in the MENA region working with Fortune 500 organizations. Fadl has over 10 years of experience in information-intensive related businesses; he has been an entrepreneur and actively engaged in IT & Media related businesses since the age of 18 starting some of the earliest dotcoms in the MENA region. In his early career, Fadl worked with major corporations such as Microsoft and IBM.
Prior to News Group & SocialEyez, Fadl was based in Washington DC as CEO of COLTEC, one of the world’s leading Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP) software companies. Fadl has a BBA from the American University in Cairo, in addition to multiple diplomas in Management from George Washington University as well as Middlesex University. Fadl is recognized as a leading expert in social media management and is a member of the Association of Measurement & Effective Communications’ (AMEC) social media committee.
Richard Bagnall
CEO, PRIME Research UK and SVP PRIME Research Europe
Richard has over 20 years’ experience measuring communications. He co-founded Metrica in the 1990s and as co-owner and Managing Director drove the company from start up to becoming one of the world’s most formidable leaders in the global measurement and insights sector.
In 2009 he led Metrica’s sale to Exponent Private Equity, owners of Durrants, which went on to also purchase media database business Gorkana and form the Gorkana Group where he remained for 4 years operating as MD of global insights while the businesses were integrated. He left to join international communications measurement consultancy specialists PRIME Research in 2014. PRIME Research has nine offices around the world, employs over 700 staff and provides analysis and consultancy services on mainstream and digital media to many of the world’s most recognised brands and organisations.
Richard is in his third stint as a board director of AMEC which he helped to found while at Metrica in the 1990s. Richard chairs AMEC’s social media measurement group which has taken a leadership position on education and best practice in social media measurement, including launching the social and integrated communications measurement frameworks.
He is a member of the CIPR’s (Chartered Institute of Public Relations) Social Media Panel with whom he authored the social media measurement chapters in both Wiley published best-selling books ‘Share This’ and ‘Share This Too’.
He is a member of the UK Government Communications Service’s Cabinet Office Evaluation Council which meets every 6 weeks to guide Government departments and Arm’s Length Bodies on how best to measure their communications. In addition to this work, Richard was one of three external specialist reviewers for a Government wide review of its digital communication capabilities. The review looked at how digital communication is planned, executed and measured throughout Government and made a number of recommendations on how to improve the process. The report was published and accepted for implementation by the UK Government in November 2013, more information being available here http://bit.ly/Digitalcommsreview
Richard is a frequent speaker at communications events and conferences where he focusses on common sense messaging to help educate delegates to navigate the mine-field of the changing media landscape and how this affects PR and the credible measurement of its affect.
KC Brown
General Manager, Cision
K.C. Brown leads Cision’s Global Insights business, with hubs in Chicago, Boston, London and Shanghai. He started in public relations research in 1998 and developed many of the company’s methodological and technological innovations.
With degrees from Brigham Young University, the University of North Carolina, and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, K.C. clearly spent too much time in school.
Johna Burke
Executive Vice President, BurrellesLuce
A PR practitioner for over 20 years, Johna uses her expertise in media relations, public relations, measurement, and analysis to act as an advocate for PR professionals and the PR profession. She joined the BurrellesLuce team in 2000, after 12 years as a BurrellesLuce client when she was Director of Public Relations and Investor Relations at U-Haul.
Now as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales at BurrellesLuce, Johna’s PR approach is “Truth first, details second.” She is a member of PRSA, AMEC Social Media Work Group, Measurement Conclave, and IABC, where she was also the Southern Region Chair in 2009.
Dawn Conway
Chief Operating Officer, Cision
Dawn Conway leads Cision’s product, sales, marketing, analysis, and research teams to drive the overall strategic vision for the business. Dawn has an extensive background in content licensing, marketing, and business development and has held key senior management positions at LexisNexis.
She is an attorney, current member of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, American Bar Association and the National Association of Women Lawyers. Dawn is also responsible for acquiring and retaining all content in support of Cision’s global businesses, including news monitoring and media database services.
Francesc Corbero
Communications Director, Nissan Spain & Portugal
Francesc Corberó has more than 20 years’ experience in media, business, institutional relations and protocol. He has developed various positions and functions, in both public and private sector, which provides him with an overall view and at the same time detailed at the field of business communication.
His career began as manager of media relations, and he continued his development as an external consultant to departments of communication for different consultancy agencies. In 1996 he entered at the service of Protocol and External Relations of the Generalitat of Catalonia until 2003.
He was back to the private sector and created Tres Educació, his own company specialized in business communication for children and young people. Throughout these years, he also collaborated in various postgraduate and Master programmes. He started to work for global companies as communication director in 2007 at Schneider Electric (global specialist in energy efficiency) and in 2011 he became Communication Director at Nissan Spain & Portugal. Francesc Corberó graduated in Business and Public Relations by ESERP.
John Croll
Chief Executive, iSentia
John Croll has been active in the media industry since 1982 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of iSentia (formerly Media Monitors) in 1999. Since then, John has led the company from a single market traditional monitoring firm to one of the Asia Pacific region’s leading business intelligence companies, offering a wide range of new media and database products as well as insight and social management services, with iSentia listing on the ASX in June 2014.
Prior to his appointment, John held sales and operational roles with Croll Communications and Media Monitors. John is a Director of the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AMEC) and a former Executive Vice President of the International Federation of Press Clipping Bureaus (FIBEP). John is also a member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia and the Institute of Company Directors. In addition to his Industry appointments, he is Vice President of the Australian Paralympic Committee.
Nikki Daniel
Director of Global Content, Moreover Technologies
Nikki has a background in content copyright, she is responsible for procuring licensed content and advising where copyright developments are taking place.
Nikki also chairs The UK Media Monitoring Association Ltd – an industry body and FIBEP chapter representing the major media monitoring companies in the UK. The primary purpose of UKMMA is to negotiate fair licences with UK collecting societies, including NLA Media Access and The Copyright Licensing Agency, and unaffiliated rights owners. As Chair, she acts as a conduit between UKMMA’s members, copyright users and collecting societies, facilitating the resolution of rights disputes and communicating proposed changes within the content licensing landscape.
Daniel Dellham
Director, KPMG
Daniel Dellham is a Director at KPMG and responsible for KPMG Sustainability Consulting in Sweden. He holds an MSc in Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and has studied at both Stanford University and Stockholm University.
Prior to joining KPMG in 2014, Daniel was the Managing Partner at Nordic strategy consulting firm Askus. For the past 10 years, he has advised senior executives and BoD members in the Nordic market on matters relating to strategic development. Daniel has extensive knowledge and experience of business strategy, gathered through engagements in the mining industry, wholesale industry, food industry and utilities. Previous engagements include enterprise-wide strategic reviews, market entry, pricing modelling, market analysis, and organizational design. He has witnessed first-hand the ongoing transformation of the Nordic business environment – from shareholder-oriented to more multi stakeholder- and sustainability-oriented.
In 2013, Daniel initiated a project together with Prof. Richard Wahlund at Stockholm School of Economics which led to a quantitative measurement tool for reputational risks and possibilities in sustainability issues.
Christophe Dickès
Global Copyright Director, Kantar Media News Intelligence
Christophe works with the publishers and the RRO at an international level. He was the Clipping Production Director at Press Index during 6 years (2006-2012). Today, he also collaborates with the marketing team in developing a vision of the monitoring business, locally and globally. Christophe is Co-Chair of the Joint AMEC/FIBEP Content & Copyright Committee.
Paloma Escudero
Director of Communications, UNICEF
In April 2013, Paloma Escudero was appointed as Director of Communications of UNICEF. Bringing her extensive experience and expertise in the areas of communications, fund raising, advocacy and brand management, she oversees UNICEF’s global public outreach and communications as its senior communication official.
Prior to the appointment, Ms. Escudero had already been well known among the UNICEF family as Executive Director of the Spanish National Committee. Under her management between 2007 and 2013, the Committee was transformed into a highly efficient organization, increasing its contribution to UNICEF’s programmes in more than 150 developing countries and contributing significantly to emergencies such as the Haiti earthquake. Escudero started her professional career, which spans more than two decades, in Procter & Gamble Spain in 1989, where she was Brand Manager and oversaw the marketing teams responsible for the brand repositioning of products.
After a sabbatical year during which she travelled around the world with her husband and worked as an aid worker in Guatemala, Escudero joined Oxfam in 1997, and became the Director of the Oxfam International Advocacy office for the European Union in 2000. First based in Spain and later in Brussels, She worked on issues such as Overseas Development Aid, external debt, humanitarian law, international agriculture and trade, and climate change.
Christophe Folschette
Co-Founder and Sales Director, Talkwalker
Christophe is co-founder and sales director at Talkwalker. He left business consulting at Accenture to follow his entrepreneurial spirit and firm belief in the value of social media intelligence for businesses.
From years of meeting with clients and developing Talkwalker, Christophe has become a cross-functional specialist in understanding the data and analytics requirements for clients’ business needs. Christophe holds an MSc degree in computer science and economics from the Munich University of Technology.
During this time he created two tech start-ups and won an innovation and entrepreneurship competition.
Christian Foster
Partner, Booz Allen Hamilton
Christian (Chris) Foster is a leader in the firm’s Civil Commercial Group, focused on communication analytics, reputation and corporate strategy across the health, financial services and oil & gas market sectors. His professional experience includes a broad knowledge of healthcare, media relations, strategic marketing, as well as brand communications and reputation management. He has worked in a variety of environments ranging from global public relations agencies and trade associations to national political campaigns and management consulting.
Mr. Foster led many national and global public awareness and communications campaigns for companies including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Amgen, and Novartis. He specializes in working with the federal government and private healthcare companies on stakeholder engagement and public education campaigns. In addition to leading and implementing global communications campaigns, he has extensive experience in crisis and litigation communications.
In the public health arena, Mr. Foster has led communications, marketing, and grassroots campaigns for the US Department of Health and Human Services (Office of the Secretary), Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Office of Minority Health.
Prior to joining Booz Allen Hamilton, Mr. Foster served as Chairman of the US Healthcare Practice for Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations firm. In that role, he led the company’s efforts to expand its footprint into the public health sector and other key market sectors, including health information technology, pharmacy benefit management, and clinical diagnostics. His key clients included Accenture, Intel, Sanofi Aventis, and Quest Diagnostics.
In addition to healthcare, Mr. Foster’s background includes working in sports marketing, entertainment, tourism, financial services, and consumer products. A highly sought after public speaker and author, Mr. Foster has served as adjunct professor and guest lecturer at Columbia University, University of Maryland, Western Kentucky University, and Howard University on topics ranging from strategic communications and public policy to brand & reputation management.
Mr. Foster holds a B.A. degree from the University of Virginia and an M.S. degree in applied behavior counseling from Johns Hopkins University. He currently serves on the National Inroads Inc. Board of Directors, International Association for Measurement in Communications, Board of Directors (Vice Chairman) and the Board of Trustees for the Burgundy Farm Country Day School. In addition, Mr. Foster is a member of Executive Leadership Council (ELC) and the Potomac Coalition.
Lilia Glazova
CEO, PR News
Lilia has 15 years of experience in PR measurement. She has been managing PR News as CEO since 2007 and has developed the company to one of the leading ones in the industry in Russia. She started her career in political PR in Moscow Fund of Parlamentarism Development and Social Information in 2001. Next 3 years she spent in PRP Weber Shandwick, Moscow office, from 2002 to 2005 and then 2 years in PR News on different positions from analysis and business development.
In addition to her work experience Lilia passionately believes in the importance of education. She graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sociology Faculty and Russian State Open University of Railway Transport, Economics Faculty. In 2014 Lilia has just graduated from University of Pittsburgh, Katz School of Business, EMBA. But Lilia believes not only in self-education but also education of the industry. She is a member of the expert jury of Annual Student Competition “Crystal Orange”.
Lilia is an active player at the Russian PR market and she is a frequent speaker at industry conferences (International Arab PR Conference 2014, PR Russia Forum 2012, 2013, 2014; Russian Internet Week, Brand Day 2012, Russian Marketing Week 2013, 2014, etc.)
Peter Granat
Chief Executive Officer, Cision
Peter Granat oversees Cision’s executive management team across operations globally.
For over 20 years, Granat has been instrumental in the development of innovative products and services to enable effective communication between the PR, marketing and media communities. He has worked closely with clients to deliver solutions that address a wide range of agency and corporate communications needs. Prior to his current role as Cision’s CEO, Granat served as CEO of Vocus and was Group CEO of Cision AB. Before that, he was senior vice president of sales and business development at MediaMap.
Sergi Guillot
Chief Executive Officer, Acceso
Sergi Guillot is the happy father to three princesses and CEO of Acceso and he is passionate about the power of Communication. This is why in 2008 he decided to be part of Acceso and to drive its change toward a recognized strategic company specialized in listening to and analyzing the voice of the media and consumers to generate insights and strategies for Marketing and Communications departments. He led the company to its current position, implementing and developing innovative solutions and impulsing its globalization in LATAM and USA. He built an international client-centric team able to offer the most innovative Data Science solutions in the Media and Consumers Intelligence market.
Sergi has consolidated his career in positions of high responsibility managing high value projects like 22@Barcelona, that raised 180 millions euros of public investment. He is an Industrial Engineer from Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain, and MBA by IESE and Columbia Business School, but also board director of AMEC, the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, member of DIRCOM, the Spanish Association of Communication Directors, and FIBEP, the International Association of Media Intelligence Companies.
He is the author of the book Gestión de proyectos complejos (Management of complex projects) published in 2014.
Mikkel Hausner
Chief Analytics Officer, Infomedia
Mikkel assists companies in utilizing insights from media and stakeholder data. He has held national and international positions within communications and has more than 15 years of experience in the field, with past experience including The LEGO Group and Reputation Institute.
Paul Hender
Head of Insights and Analysis, Gorkana
Paul Hender has more than 20 years’ experience in media analysis. He was with Metrica from its infancy, growing the business from start-up to one of the leading specialist measurement agencies before a three way merger formed Gorkana group in 2010.
Paul is currently Head of Insight and Analysis for Gorkana and is responsible for developing the group’s analysis and insight services. He also provides consultative advice to Gorkana’s clients, which include some of the world’s largest and most recognised brands.
Nick Hindle
Senior Vice President, UK Corporate Affairs & North West Europe Division Strategy, McDonald’s
Nick Hindle became Senior Vice President, UK Corporate Affairs in November 2012 and assumed additional Divisional responsibilities in January 2014 for Strategy & Alignment for the North West Europe Division.
His current remit as Senior Vice President, UK Corporate Affairs covers Media Relations, Public Affairs, Internal Communications and Environment, and in his role within the North West Division Nick will deliver strategy and market support to enable future growth and innovation across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Germany, Ireland and the UK. Nick joined McDonald’s in 2002 as Head of Corporate Affairs and was appointed to the UK Executive team in 2007. In 2008 he joined the Northern Europe Leadership team and he is also a trustee of Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Over the last decade Nick has led McDonald’s UK external and internal communications functions through the most turbulent time in its history and overseen a number of integrated marketing and communications programmes highlighting McDonald’s Food Quality, Employer Reputation and sports sponsorship. He took on UK Executive responsibility for McDonald’s London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic programme and has worked closely with our franchisees, creating the UK Brand Ambassadors programme in 2006 which is now best practice across the McDonald’s system.
Jeff Kuhlman
Vice President, Global Communications, Nissan
Jeff is a Nissan Vice President leading the Global Nissan Motor Co. Communications team, including responsibility for all brand communications for Nissan, Datsun, and Infiniti. He oversees six geographical regions managing a communications team of more than 270 people. He is charged with developing strategies that help people understand and communicate what the company stands for, what new products it is developing, and where it sees itself in the future.
Jeff has spent more than 30 years working in the automotive industry, having been born in Toledo, Ohio, in the United States, and starting work as an intern for General Motors. Over the course of 22 years he worked in a number of roles for GM, from the manager of communications and speechwriter to the President of GM North American Operations, through to Director of Communications for energy and environmental issues, head of Communications for the Cadillac, Hummer and Saab brands, and finally as head of GM’s Communications team that support the vast North American Operations.
In June 2006, he moved to Audi of America as the Chief Communications Officer, developing the PR strategy designed to grow brand awareness. During that time he travelled extensively to Europe working with colleagues to refine the brand’s global messaging. In 2011 he joined Nissan, moving to Japan in the process.
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Markus Larsson
Head of Analytics, United Minds
Markus focuses primarily on method development at the agency, aiming to help United Minds’ clients to better understand their context. He has an MSc degree and often works with quantitative methods, from surveys to social media and beyond. He has a fascination for tech areas like big data and the internet of things, and works primarily with projects that touch on tech, either by working with tech clients or by applying large scale data analysis methodologies.
He believes in Steve Jobs’ quote that creativity is connecting things.
Barry Leggetter
CEO, AMEC
Barry Leggetter has earned a reputation for using his career experience in public relations consultancy to help “make measurement matter.” He is CEO of the international Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC).
He has been responsible for driving initiatives which have turned AMEC into an international body, enjoying rapid growth with members in over 40 countries. These include the establishment of the AMEC International Summit as the biggest event of its kind in the world and the new Measurement Month initiative which was an outstanding success in its first year (2014).
He previously spent 25 years in PR consultancy and was UK Managing Director for three major public relations networks, Porter Novelli, Fleishman-Hillard and GOLIN, climaxing his PR career in the role of International Chairman of Bite Communications. Leggetter is a former Chairman of the UK Public Relations Consultants Association and is a Fellow of both the PRCA and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).
Ben Levine
Vice President, Ketchum Global Research & Analytics
Ben first joined Ketchum’s Global Research & Analytics team in 2005, counselling and leading on research, measurement and evaluation projects with a focus on PR and communications. Ben has worked with a variety of clients from banking, consumer electronics, lifestyle, corporate, and bio-technology including Philips, Bank of America, Geek Squad, MasterCard, Pandora Jewelry, P&G, Pfizer and DSM.
Ben’s research experience covers both qualitative and quantitative methods and approaches, including surveys used to drive and analyze messaging, online focus groups used to shape brand positioning, media analyses used to gauge corporate reputation, and brand tracking surveys used to measure and understand the impact of communications on target audiences.
Ben has a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire, and studied journalism at Boston University. Ben is a European chapter member of the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AMEC), and regularly speaks on events focused on measurement and analytics.
He previously worked as a city reporter for the Stamford Times (Stamford, CT) where he wrote news and feature stories on Stamford government and community issues.
Christina Liao
Senior Vice President & Senior Partner, Global Director, Research & Analytics, FleishmanHillard
Christina Liao leads FleishmanHillard’s global Research & Analytics team. In this role, she leads a team of researchers and analysts who are nimble and adept at leveraging the power of research, data and analytics to fuel persuasive insights, inspire powerful ideas and create integrated communication solutions for clients.
Most recently, Christina was group director, knowledge and insights, at The Coca-Cola Company, where she led significant work in brand equity, ROI across the Owned, Earned, Shared, Paid media channels, and the linkage between short-term and long-term business outcomes. The results of the work were used to shape strategies for various brand investments and creative development.
Christina is the proven leader and expert in the appropriate use of data, research and analytics tools, and translating research results into actionable brand, marketing, and communication insights. She has been called upon to design and conduct large multi-brand studies and analyses in the areas of trends, brand loyalty, consumer satisfaction, customer lifetime value, and Return on Investment. During her nearly two decades in the measurement and analytics field, Christina has worked in both the private and public sectors and served clients in a variety of industries, from consumer packaged goods to pharmaceuticals, hospitality to insurance and financial services.
Edvard Lind
Head of Media Relations, Skanska AB
Edvard Lind is the Head of Media Relations at Skanska AB, one of the world’s leading project development and construction groups with operations in 18 markets. He is one of the most experienced media relations professionals in Sweden and has been named by journalists as one of the best communications people.
Edvard Lind has worked at some of Sweden’s most exposed companies. He has been the Head of Media at Vattenfall Group, a European energy company owned by the Swedish state. Edvard Lind has also worked as Public Affairs Manager and Press Officer at the state owned Railway Company in Sweden, SJ.
Adam Mack
Chief Strategy Officer, Weber Shandwick EMEA
Adam Mack has been in the PR industry for 20 years, although as a ‘pure’ strategist he has never had the pleasure of picking up a phone to a journalist, other than to survey them. He runs a small but perfectly formed team of 7 strategists across Europe and personally supports clients as diverse as Nespresso, Cereal Partners Worldwide, the European Glass Federation, Shredit and others with strategic brand or communications counsel.
Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, Adam was at Freud Communications for 5 years and then struck out alone as ‘Therapy Marketing’, supporting brands such as Comic Relief, Richemont Group and Yahoo. He believes that good strategic planning needs a good gut and a good brain.
Jim Macnamara
Professor of Public Communications, University of Technology Sydney
Before joining UTS in 2007, Jim had a 30-year career in professional communication practice spanning journalism, public relations, and media and communication research.
He holds a BA in journalism, media studies and literary studies; a Master of Arts by research in media studies; and a PhD in media research.
He is the author of 16 professional and academic books including The 21st Century Media (R)evolution (Peter Lang, New York, 2010, 2nd edition 2014) and Organizational Listening: The Missing Corollary of Speaking in Public Communication to be published later this year.
Kimberly Maki
Corporate Vice President/Chief Communications, Executive Bright House Networks
Kimberly Maki’s career in communications, business development and marketing – which includes a combination of corporate and non-profit experience at the most senior levels – uniquely qualifies her to deliver results through a truly integrated approach to communications across many verticals within the company. As Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications and Public Relations, Maki and her team are responsible for leading external and internal communications, corporate and industry relations, media relations, crisis planning and response, brand reputation management, social media engagement and audience development, and multicultural inclusion strategies. She also leads strategic advancement of the company’s commitment and custom localized approach to community investment and philanthropic giving.
Prior to Bright House Networks, Maki served as the chief employed executive for the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), a global non-profit standards-setting organization. Maki also served as the only American and female executive on the owner/partnership board for the successful international trade show, IBC, which is headquartered in London, England and held in Amsterdam, Netherlands each year. In her capacity on the executive level board, she also was elected by her peers to serve as Chair of Strategy for this large global event.
Prior to SMPTE, Maki was Vice President – Marketing, Membership & Business Development for the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE). Previously, Maki held the position of Vice President of Public Affairs for the Houston Division of Time Warner Communications, a unit of Time Warner Cable. Prior to her Houston appointment, Maki managed national trade and industry relations for Primestar Partners Corporate. Earlier years were spent with Time Warner Cable’s Atlanta National Division as Director, Public and Government Affairs; Vision Cable Communications (an Advance/Newhouse Company) as Corporate Director, Public Affairs; and the Michigan Cable Television Association as Director, Public Affairs.
Alan Malligsen
CEO, Retriever Denmark
Alan Malligsen is the CEO of Retriever Denmark. Having worked in other countries such as Germany and the US, international business is at the heart of his concerns.
Alan has a thorough knowledge of the Nordic market in terms of media monitoring and media evaluation, not the least from his close contact with his CEO colleagues in Norway and Sweden, as well as with clients operating in the Nordic countries. He is passionate about the benefits of media analysis, but stresses the importance of creating a good foundation together with each client to ensure business value. In addition to business matters, Alan has a special interest in history and politics, and has a Master’s degree in both
Petra Masinova
CEO, Newton Media
Newton Media is the Central European market leader in media monitoring and analysis, based in Czech Republic, and operating in also in Poland, Slovakia and the Balkans.
Petra is currently leading a strong change management process, converting the company from monitoring and analysis provider into a value-added full service agency. She is a communications professional with 17 years’ experience in multinational and multilingual environments, with both government and international business experience.
Petra has held a variety of senior positions and she has a proven track record as a team leader with strong organizational and motivational skills. She is experienced in negotiating with and managing both corporate and international teams.
Ben Matthews
Head of Strategic Communications, eBay
Ben is Head of Strategic Communications for eBay, leading campaigns and change communications for teams across Europe. His current focus is how businesses can better understand and shape their culture. Prior to eBay, he’s worked for BT, Telefonica and he was responsible for global internal communications at Cable&Wireless.
Ben is passionate about the use of data to help communications speak the language of the business and he is a member of UK Government’s Cabinet Office Communications Evaluation Council.
Marion McDonald
Managing Director, Strategy & Effectiveness, Ogilvy Public Relations, Asia Pacific Region
Well known for her “show me the money!” approach, Marion draws on two decades of client-side experience supporting marketing investments to CFOs, coupled with training as a Deloitte auditor. With a track record of profitably increasing sales and market share at Allergan, Procter & Gamble, Revlon and Reckitt Benckiser, her approach is founded on a strong desire to see marketing connect to the bottom line.
Joining Ogilvy PR in 2008, Marion led global PR strategy for Unilever’s Pond’s and Lux, partnered with Team WPP/Ford team on lifestyle PR and lead a cross-discipline Unilever global agency team. In addition to driving the quality of strategy & insight across Asia Pacific region, Marion has served on regional award juries for Spikes, SABRE, Campaign PR Week and AMEC globally. She leads effectiveness measurement and co-developed Ogilvy’s global PR activation tool for holistic brand PR.
Australian-born, she is now an ‘Asian stir-fry’ with 17 years of assignments across Japan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Myanmar and Bangkok, putting her Masters in International Marketing to good use. Marion is also a regular conference presenter and occasional musical theatre director and producer in Hong Kong.
Heather Mitchell
Global Head of PR and Social Media, Unilever Hair Care
Heather has nearly two decades of PR and social media experience, currently leading earned media strategies for Unilever’s global hair care portfolio, including TRESemme, Dove Hair, Toni&Guy and Clear, among others. She previously lead PR and social media for Unilever’s personal care brands in the US, including award-winning and sales-generating work on AXE and Suave.
Michele Murray
Executive Director, Integrated Communications, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a contractor to The Beef Checkoff
Michele serves as the lead strategist focused on motivating Americans to choose beef.
She leads the “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner.” Advertising, online/social media outreach, public relations, health professional education along with retail and foodservice engagement. Michele directs beef brand strategy, consumer insights and integration while evaluating how marketplace shifts may impact the consumer target, Older Millennials, and their relationship with beef.
Michele joined NCBA in December 2002. Previously, she worked for Johnston Wells Public Relations and CMF&Z Marketing Communications. She has a bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communications from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. A dairy farmer’s daughter from Minnesota, Michele now lives in Denver Colorado with her husband, daughters Adelyn and Lucy and a border collie named Sadie.
François Nicolon
Global CMO, Kantar Media
François is a marketing professional with extensive experience in the media and communications industry. He was appointed Global CMO of Kantar Media│News Intelligence in 2013.
François co-ordinates the news monitoring and PR research businesses for global market research leader Kantar, with operational hubs across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific regions. He oversees Kantar Media’s range of products and services in the content monitoring area, for brand exposure measurement, media impact analysis, PR and social evaluation, media reputation tracking. He has more than 15 years of international media practice, with past experience including media giant RTL Group and leading newswire AFP.
Rachana Panda
Director, Corporate Communications & Citizenship, GE South Asia
Rachana Panda leads all internal and external communications including Brand & Media initiatives for the company across all businesses and entities. She joined GE in 2012. As the lead for Communications for a conglomerate like GE with diverse businesses, Rachana has played a key role in driving the ‘One GE’ narrative. Rachana along with her team has effectively driven thought leadership for GE through insight based communication across earned and paid media, integrated with strategic digital outreach. One of the core responsibilities for Rachana is to align communications with specific goals that translate into a real measurable business impact for GE.
Previously, Rachana has had extensive strategic, creative and operational experience as the communications lead of Alstom South Asia, where she spent 5 years. At Alstom, she was responsible for building the integrated communications team across diverse set of businesses. Rachana started her career as a management trainee in Apollo Tyres. She worked for Alcatel and UTStarcom at a time when telecom revolution was at its peak. She played a pivotal role in conceptualizing and executing entry strategies from a communications perspective of various telecom initiatives in India and Bangladesh.
She has extensively worked on sustainable development projects for the British Council in India. Rachana attended the International Management Institute for a Master’s degree in International Business Management. She’s been educated in various parts of India and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Science. Rachana is passionate about collecting antique fixtures and has a wide collection of artifacts at home. She has deep interest in reading about various cultures and traditions.
Walter Patanella
CEO, News Intelligence Kantar Media
Walter Patanella has 20+ years experience in the business information industry. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the media intelligence division at Kantar Media in 2012. Kantar Media is today the leading provider of media monitoring and evaluation services to public relations and media communication professionals.
Prior to his appointment, Walter was Chief Operating Officer of Press Index where he was actively involved in the acquisition of a number of European based monitoring companies.
A qualified financial analyst, Walter gained his early commercial and operating experience at Thomson Reuter where he held a number of senior international management positions.
Elayne Phillips
Head of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation, Department For Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Elayne has a background in both the public and private sector. She owned her own business in Wales and worked as one of the first female Senior Managers within British Telecom Operations before working for various Government departments and agencies heading up internal communications divisions, press offices and corporate areas. Elayne has worked in the Houses of Parliament developing its communications strategy and recently won a PR Moment Award for her communications evaluation work.
Although her academic achievements centre on business, accountancy and finance, her area of extensive expertise has become communications and specifically horizon scanning, measurement and evaluation. Her recent work in evaluation of communications is recognized as ‘leading the way across Whitehall’ by a Government Capability Review and she featured in the Government’s Annual Communications Plan as ‘best in class’ for her horizon scanning, management information and social analytics work for the past two years running.
Frida Roberts
Head of Communications Unit, The Swedish Institute
Frida is currently leading the Communications Unit at The Swedish Institute (SI) – a government agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that promotes interest and trust in Sweden around the world through public diplomacy and nation branding.
Passionate about intercultural communications, branding and digital media. Frida has over 15 years of professional experience in the internet and communications industry with a successful international track record producing and executing business and communications strategies.
She is also a co-founder of the highly acclaimed and award winning ‘Curators of Sweden’ project. This ground breaking venture was first of its kind globally and allowed Swedish citizens to voice their own opinions, uncensored, on Sweden’s official Twitter account @Sweden.
Khali Sakkas
Head of Insights, iSentia Australia
Khali joined iSentia in 2003 as a media analyst. She has provided media analysis and insight to corporate and government clients across the Asia Pacific for over 10 years. Khali now leads the Insights team in Australia, a team dedicated to demonstrating success for their clients and providing actionable insight. Khali is a graduate of Communications from Charles Sturt University and in 2008, won the company’s global “best of the best” award.
Khali successfully completed the AMEC International Certificate in Measurement and Evaluation in 2014. She is passionate about Insights and has presented at the Walkley Foundation’s Public Affairs Conference 2013 and at the PRIA National Conference 2014. Khali is a member of the AMEC Asia Pacific Chapter Leadership Team, a group committed to measurement and evaluation best practice.
Eileen Sheil
Executive Director, Corporate Communications, Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is one of the largest academic medical centers in the United States. Eileen oversees internal and external strategic communications, crisis and issues management, media relations and serves as the chief spokesperson for the health system locally, nationally, and internationally.
Her expertise is in crisis communications and is a part of the executive leadership team. She is intimately involved in protecting and promoting the reputation of the Cleveland Clinic and highlighting the clinical, institutional, and business priorities of the organization. She also serves as a voting member of the Innovation Management & Conflict of Interest Committee.
With 20+ years in healthcare communications, Eileen has broad experience in health policy, crisis communication and issues management. Prior to coming to the Cleveland Clinic, she worked in Ohio for Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest non-profit HMOs, where she managed public affairs and media relations.
Stuart Smith
CEO, Ogilvy Public Relations
Stuart Smith has over twenty years’ experience in communications. In that time he has held senior positions within consultancies and in-house and has worked across many industries and geographies in both the private and public sectors.
His experience with media brands covers PR for CNBC Europe, The Economist conferences and the BBC (who he advised on digital and blogging strategies prior to their launch). He is also a keen follower of the changing face of the media and its business model and how this is influencing the art and science of marketing.
His experience of developing strategy spans a wide range of disciplines: change management programmes, acquisitions, disposals and rebranding; crisis management and issues preparedness; organisational effectiveness audits; communications and marketing; issues-led and public affairs campaigns; managing stakeholder relations across a range of NGOs; and the alignment of internal communications with brand repositioning programmes.
Stuart holds a doctoral research degree from Oxford (Christ Church) in Environmental Chemistry (atmospheric pollution and global warming).
Robert Söderling
CEO, Retriever
Robert Söderling has led Retriever for 10 years, developing the innovative startup in the industry to the leading company in the Nordic countries for media evaluation and media monitoring. The company has grown by eight times since then, Retriever Sweden and Retriever Norway have developed into market leaders and Retriever Denmark has been established.
Robert has a passion for the continuous development of the business aiming at providing further value for Retriever clients. Robert has a continual attention to the processes when it comes to the fueling of the startup innovative approach in regard to both products and services. One of the benefits being an AMEC member is to share new ideas and develop the industry together with AMEC member colleagues.
Aseem Sood
Chief Executive Officer, Impact Research & Measurement Pvt Ltd
Aseem Sood is a technology enthusiast. He loves to evaluate and apply technology solutions to solve business problems. He believes that companies offering news analysis services can help PR professionals demonstrate the importance/ attention that communication, as a function, deserves in the corporate boardroom. He co-hairs AMEC’s Asia Pacific Chapter along with another AMEC leader from Australia.
Aseem is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Impact Research & Measurement Pvt. Ltd. He is also a Director at The International Association of Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, UK (AMEC). He also plays the role of Vice President in the Executive Committee of International Association – FIBEP.
Prior to Impact, Aseem worked with McKinsey & Co. as an analyst. At McKinsey he worked with clients in Europe, US and China, helping them improve their operations’ effectiveness in the domain of purchasing and supply management. He also worked in McKinsey & Co.’s Business Technology Office (BTO) practice, a special initiative of McKinsey & Co. that offers technology consulting services.
Arnaud Steinkuhler
Opinion, Media & Social Media Analysis Department Manager, Argus de la presse
At Argus de la presse Arnaud has developed the Media Analysis Department (2002-2006), the Media Intelligence Online Portal (2007-2009) and the e-Reputation team (2010-2015), as well as launching new brands: MAP Institute or Aura Mundi.
He graduated from the University of Brussels in “Sciences de l’information et de la communication”.
He worked as a journalist for the communication group Havas and as a Market Research Analyst for the first European television operator on the Internet, CanalWeb.net, before joining Argus de la presse. Arnaud Steinkuhler is also involved in focus groups and books dedicated to communication activities.
Meredith Stevens
Director of Digital Strategy, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA)
In her role as Director of Digital Strategy, Meredith leads the digital (ecosystem, online, social media) and measurement strategies, and ensures integration and consistency across organizational teams. Her responsibilities include developing, guiding and measuring innovative and engaging interactive solutions that reinforce beef’s positive brand image, deepen target engagement with beef, and help decrease barriers to beef consumption. She has been with NCBA since November 2009.
Prior to working with NCBA, Meredith spent four years managing public relations and social media programs on behalf of consumer brands such as, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group and BRIO Tuscan Grill.
Jeremy Thompson
Chief Executive, Gorkana Group and Chair, AMEC
Jeremy is Chief Executive of Gorkana Group, the market leading media intelligence business based in London and New York. Jeremy has spent a career in business information, first at Thomson Reuters, then UBM, and latterly in the media intelligence space with Xtreme, Durrants, and now Gorkana. Gorkana Group is used by the majority of PRs and Communicators in the FTSE250, Government and PR150, and is increasingly making a name for itself in Europe and the US. It focuses on delivering the very best data, analysis and insight to a community which it connects through news, alerts, interviews, events and careers. Jeremy has led a number of mergers and acquisitions to build a £50m Group and his vision is to build a global business.
Jeremy is also Chair of AMEC, the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, the global trade body and professional institute for agencies and practitioners who provide media evaluation and communication research. AMEC currently has more than 120 members in 41 countries worldwide, including the top 10 PR agencies in the world.
Miguel Veiga-Pestana
Chief Communications Officer, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Miguel Veiga-Pestana leads the foundation’s global communications division and is focused on increasing awareness and engagement for priority global poverty, health, and U.S. education issues. Miguel is responsible for overseeing all communications and brand functions, including managing reputation risk and building media partnerships to support independent coverage of priority issues.
Prior to joining the foundation, Miguel served as Vice-President, Global Sustainability Strategy and External Advocacy at Unilever, where he was responsible for driving global advocacy on key sustainability and business strategy priorities to affect systemic, transformational change. He led Unilever’s engagement in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development (SDG) goals process and was a member of Unilever’s Steering Committee for the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Miguel has more than 25 years of communications and sustainability experience. Prior to Unilever, he held several external relations and/or public affairs positions in the UK, US and Brussels.
Michael Ziviani
Founder & CEO, Precise Value
Michael founded Precise Value in 1999, after many years establishing marketing analytics for Microsoft Australia. His work now helps clients and agencies understand how and where communications creates new value. He works with organisations like Vodafone, Sony, Samsung and Nestle.
His latest R&D links communication activity to a range of business outcomes. This focus puts science behind the art of communications quantifying the value created in concrete numbers.
Michael is a key driver of the PRIA Measurement & Evaluation Committee and the Co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Chapter of the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communications, and a main Board member. His contribution here brings over 20 years’ experience in market research and evaluation to help set a best practice direction for the industry.
Michael is passionate about turning data into business value and this passion is evident in his entertaining presentation style – his natural and passionate enthusiasm catches the audience’s attention.
