Colleen Harris

Former Press Secretary To Princes Charles, William And Harry

Former Adviser, World Health Organization, Elton John Aids Foundation

With more than 25 years’ experience ranging from the British Royal Household, via Downing Street, to international NGOs, Colleen Harris has a strong track record of working in high-profile media and communications roles. This professional experience is complemented by a broad portfolio of trusteeships and non-executive director roles in the arts, education and health. Colleen held a senior communications position in the Prime Minister’s Office before being appointed Press Secretary to HRH the Prince of Wales, and was the first Black member of the Royal Household. She handled the media for The Prince of Wales during some of the most turbulent years, and also media-managed the emergence of Princes William and Harry into the public eye. Her career has included senior posts in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, and the Cabinet Office as well as in non-departmental Public Bodies. She has worked in Britain and abroad as a consultant with private companies, non-profit organisations and UN agencies, including the World Health Organisation. Colleen’s work in a wide variety of contexts has taught her about managing individual reputations, as well as how to use brand-development techniques to help clients identify and take full advantage of their strengths and skills – equipping them to define their own public profiles, and achieve personal and business success. Colleen’s board-level and executive experience has given her a good appreciation of how to inspire and lead teams, as well as insight into the qualities that CEOs and boards look for in high-level executives.

Pierandrea Quarta

Procter & Gamble

Head&Shoulders, Global Digital Brand Manager

Pierandrea Quarta is the Global Digital Marketing Manager for Head&Shoulders at Procter & Gamble, based in Geneva. He is in charge of the brand digital strategy, content development, and platforms management. He is passionate about social media, and fascinated by the frequency at which it revolutionizes the marketing world. Prior to Procter& Gamble, he has held marketing roles with Bacardi in Barcelona, and with L’Oréal in Paris. He is a graduate of ESADE Business School and Bocconi University.

Richard Stephenson

Civil Aviation Authority

Communications Director

Richard Stephenson joined the CAA in January 2015 as Communications Director. Prior to joining the CAA, Richard held senior communications roles in high profile and leading FTSE businesses, including as Group Strategic Communications Adviser at Centrica plc, Corporate Affairs Director at AXA and Director of Public Relations at Royal Mail Group. A postgraduate of Cardiff Journalism School, Richard is non-executive chairman of a fledgling public relations agency, non-executive director of Coventry University London Campus and a Director of County Hall Management Company Ltd. He has been a prolific charity fundraiser, climbing Kilimanjaro and traversing New Zealand and the Arctic for good causes, is currently chairman of a youth charity and has undertaken political work, in four continents, for over 20 years.

Patrick Jephson

Former Chief Of Staff To Princess Diana

International Reputation Expert, New York Times Bestselling Author & Consultant, Netflix's "The Crown"

Patrick is a consultant, journalist, broadcaster and New York Times and London Sunday Times bestselling author, based in Washington DC.  His byline has appeared in every major UK newspaper and international titles as varied as TIME magazine, People, The Spectator, Paris Match, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the National Catholic Reporter.  He is a published authority on corporate and personal branding, addressing conferences worldwide as well as events at the US State Department, the American University and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. 

He also writes, presents and advises on factual and drama programs, appearing on every major US network as well as British and international platforms.  His two decades of news and current affairs assignments have included on-screen conversations with figures such as David Frost, David Dimbleby, Barbara Walters and Larry King. 

He is founding partner in JephsonBeaman, a boutique communications consultancy specializing in international high-profile, sensitive and UHNW services.  With more than twenty-five years’ experience in the government, luxury and family office sectors, Patrick’s portfolio has included Ferrari, Harrods, Beretta and Hawker Beechcraft as well as national agencies and NGOs.  He has also worked on reputation and legacy briefs with European, Middle Eastern and Asian families, including royalty. 

Patrick owes much of his practical communications experience to Princess Diana, who chose him to be her equerry and only private secretary/chief of staff.  He served the Princess for eight years (1988-96), responsible for every aspect of her public life, worldwide humanitarian initiatives, and private organization.  Under relentless media scrutiny, his tenure covered the period of Princess Diana’s greatest popularity as well as the constitutional controversy of her separation from Prince Charles.  In recognition of his service, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order.

Patrick was born and raised in Ireland and holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Cambridge University.  As an officer in the British Royal Navy he served all over the world before being selected for royal duty.  In March 2015 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Mary Jo Jacobi

Former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, Former Assistant US Commerce Secretary for President George H.W. Bush, British Civil Service Commissioner

Former Senior Executive, HSBC, Lehman Brothers, Royal Dutch Shell And BP America

Mary Jo Jacobi Jephson is a renowned expert in reputation, brand and crisis management drawn from her extensive experience at senior levels of the corporate, public and voluntary sectors on both sides of the Atlantic. Most recently, Mary Jo was Executive Vice President of BP America during its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Previously she led reputation management for Royal Dutch Shell, Lehman Brothers, HSBC Holdings and Drexel Burnham Lambert. She also devised and executed the award-winning global brand strategies for Lehman and HSBC, including the first-ever use of airport jetties for brand projection and thought leadership. She is a non-executive director of the Weir Group PLC, Mulvaney Capital Management and Panafsat and a member of the advisory board of Fink Africa. She is also a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University'ss Centre for Corporate Reputation. Mary Jo was the first woman to chair the board of the Ladies Professional Golf Association and subsequently served on the board of the Ladies European (Golf) Tour. She is a frequent broadcast commentator, lecturer and public speaker around the world.

Donald Steel

Former Chief Communications Advisor, BBC

Vice President, Crisis Communications, Kenyon International Emergency Services

Donald Steel has built a global reputation as a crisis communicator.  For more than 25 years he has given strategic counsel to organisations and high profile individuals in a range of serious situations, including aircraft incidents, terrorism, kidnapping, serious accidents, executive and personal misconduct, fraud, litigation and inquests and serious regulatory and diplomatic issues.

He was for 11 years, the chief media spokesman of the BBC.

In his own practice, based in London, he worlds with a range of corporate, government, NGO and individual clients across the UK, Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, North America and Asia Pacific and Australasia.   His clients includes airlines, hospitals, universities, hotel groups, UN agencies, orchestras, the Eurovision Song Contest, arts venues and high profile artistes.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in London and of the Royal Society of Arts.  He is a regular guest lecturer at the London School of Economics and the China Media Centre of the University of Westminster.

Alongside his own practice, last year he was appointed Vice President, Crisis Communications at Kenyon International Emergency Services, the worlds longest serving and most admired responder to incidents involving fatality and injury.  Based in Houston, Berkshire (UK), Beirut and Santo Domingo, Kenyon’s clients range from leading airlines, cruise companies, hotel groups, governments, police forces, local authorise and companies across the world who work in high risk situations.  In this role, Donald leads a team of senior crisis communicators based around the world, ready to respond to clients.

He was a member of Aviation Futures, a recent think tank of the UK Civil Aviation Authority supporting the CAA on planning the regulation of future developments in aviation.

Medard Schoenmaeckers

Credit-Suisse

Head Group Internal Communications

Over the past 20 years, Medard has worked for organisations that all have a compelling story to tell. Companies with an international scope, a strong brand and highly recognized in their industry. He has worked and lived in three countries, both in b2b and b2c, and mostly in regulated, research-driven and issues-rich organisations.

Following an initial career as a banker in retail, commercial and investment banking, he switched to communications in 2001. Medard spent ten years in the life sciences and agricultural inputs industries, before returning to the financial sector in 2012.

During his career in corporate communications he built strategies that helped companies tell their story internally and externally with confidence. The global change programmes at HSBC, Syngenta’s food security thought leadership programme and the transformation strategy of DSM are cases in point..

A people-oriented leader, Medard enjoys building teams, working at C-suite level and operating in complex corporate structures with a global accent.

Jon Meakin

Clarity PR

President, North America

Jon has 25 years’ public relations and communications experience, encompassing consumer, corporate, business-to-business and crisis and issues management.  He is currently President, North America at Clarity PR, responsible for the strategic direction and growth of Clarity's North American business.

Previously, Jon ran Grayling’s global Strategic Services team, which encompassed research, insights and evaluation; creative and content solutions through the agency’s GMint offer; and Grayling’s proprietary online reputation management tool, GCore. He also overseed the firm’s global marketing efforts and consults on key international clients.

Jon’s career has seen him develop and run successful international campaigns for clients including PayPal and Shell, and UK programs for clients in food and drink, travel and tourism, publishing, property and other sectors.

Jon is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK and has previously judged several PR industry awards, including the CIPR Excellence Awards, PRCA Awards, the PRWeek Awards and the Romanian PR Awards. British born, Jon is currently resident in San Francisco.

Zayna Aston

YouTube

EMEA Communications and Public Affairs

Steph Bailey

FleishmanHillard

Managing Director, Corporate

Steph has 15 years’ experience as a corporate affairs adviser to some of the world’s leading companies and brands, including Western Digital, Danone, Intel, Rolls-Royce, HSBC and many more. At FleishmanHillard in London Steph runs the corporate team transforming it from a handful of people to the agency’s biggest corporate team in just a couple of years.
Steph’s career has focused on crisis communications, media and stakeholder relations and digital engagement. She previously ran the Corporate and Technology practice at Red Consultancy and was UK Lead at Edelman for Chevron’s Central and European corporate affairs campaign.
Steph is one of FleishmanHillard’s Black Belts, a team of global reputation specialists that advise the network and her clients on how to handle crisis communications.

Martin Riecken

TUI Group

Head of Corporate Communications, Group Corporate and External Affairs

David Brockdorff

BPC International

Managing Director

David Brockdorff is the Managing Director of BPC International, a Malta-based agency providing advertising, design, consultancy, media, digital, and public relations services that add value to clients and their brands.

An experienced communications strategist, he holds a Masters Degree in Marketing from Lancaster University and previously worked as advertising manager with an international company in Belgium. Board director of a number of entities in the communications sector and council member of the Malta Employers Association.