Jury

Director Campaigns & Communications, Amnesty International

Markus Beeko is the Director of Campaigns & Communications for Amnesty International (German section). Previously, he worked as the Director of Communications for the Swiss Think Tank Prognos AG, which is part of the German Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. Before that he was a freelance Communications Adviser and worked in advertising for about ten years.

Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, MSL Group

Pascal Beucler joined a subsidiary of Publicis Consultants in 1987, and was promoted to a partner in 1994. He became Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer of the MSL Group in 2010, under whose umbrella Publicis now falls. He is an Associate Professor at CELSA (Paris IV Sorbonne) and a Visiting Professor at HEC (French Business College). He has conducted research and published articles on various topics, and in particular on the relationship between text and images.

Chief Operations Officer, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR

Nathalie Biderman has a strong experience in international PR and public affairs, advising various institutions, companies and NGO’s in their communication strategies. Prior to joining Euro RSCG, she worked with the international marketing and communication team of the Organising Committee of the 1992 Winter Olympic Games.

Director Communications, PostNL

Robin Boon had been responsible for TNT’s Corporate Relations from April 2008 until 2011. The company recently split into PostNL and TNT Express, and Boon is now responsible for communications for the newly-created mail company.

Chairman & CEO Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA), Hill & Knowlton

Sally Costerton is currently Chairman & CEO EMEA, having moved into the role from her position as CEO, Hill & Knowlton UK. Prior to that she was as Practice Head, Technology for EMEA, where she lead a practice with over 100 staff across 20 countries. She has worked across a wide variety of clients and extensively in the technology and financial services sectors, and specialises in corporate communications – working internationally with organisations such as HSBC, Intel, The Learning Skills Council and Visa.

President, Lift Consulting

Before changing to Public Relations, Salvador da Cunha worked as an economic journalist and editor. He was the founder of many Portuguese economic newspapers, and founder shareholder of Jornal de Negocios. For the past 14 years he has been CEO and Owner of Lift Consulting, one of the leading PR Agencies in Portugal. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of ICCO – the International Communications Consultancy Organisation – since May 2009.

Executive Vice President Europe, Weber Shandwick

Rose de la Pascua is based in Madrid where she is Chair of Spain and Executive Vice President Europe. She is responsible for the growth, management and strategic direction of the Spanish operation and acts as senior counsel to a number of strategic clients. She proactively represents the company through regional business partnerships, external relations and supports the management and growth of the CE business, practices and international clients. This is her second tenure at Weber Shandwick. Initially, she opened the first Shandwick office in Madrid and as Managing Director headed up the operation, supervised client service quality and led new business efforts.

Managing Director Europe, MSL Schwartz Communications

Kristina Ebenius joined Schwartz Communications 1999 and opened Schwartz’s European headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden in 2006. She has previously worked at PR agencies such as Edelman and Andréasson Public Relations.

Group External Relations Senior Vice President, Telecom Italia

Carlo Fornaro has held his current role at Telecom Italia since 2008. He has also previously held senior communications roles at Omnitel (which later became Vodafone Italia), the RCS Media Group and Luxottica. He has lectured in the Master’s course in Media Relations at the Catholic University of Milan since 2006.

CEO EMEA, Burson-Marsteller

 Jeremy Galbraith has spent over 20 years helping leading companies and organisations manage critical issues and influence European political processes at European Union and Member State level – to preserve or advance business goals. He was previously the CEO of Burson-Marsteller in Brussels from 2000 to 2007 having first joined Burson-Marsteller in 1995 to head up the UK Public Affairs Practice.

President, European Association of Communication Directors

Herbert Heitmann is Executive Vice President of External Communications for Royal Dutch Shell, having recently moved there from SAP AG. Alongside his current role at Shell, he is a Trustee of the Board of the Arthur W. Page Society and the founding President of the European Association of Communication Directors.

Director of Communications, Czech Airlines

Hana Hejsková has 13 years of experience in Public Relations and Communications. Before joining Czech Airlines, she worked at Telefónica O2 Czech Republic and Český Telecom for a number of years. She also implemented the communication and PR activities of Telefónica O2 Slovakia when it first entered the Slovak market and was the company’s first spokesperson.

Director of Corporate Communications, KPN Royal Dutch Telecom

Hans Koeleman has held his current position at KPN since June 2007. Prior to this position, he held various key positions in corporate communications in different sectors such as retail, financial services and transport. Koeleman has studied Dutch Language and Literature, and holds a MA in Business Communications and an MBA. He has been active as an advisor and teacher in various institutes for education in PR and corporate communications. He is a member of the Board of the Dutch PR Association and a Regional Coordinator for the EACD in the Netherlands.

CEO, Lewis PR

Chris Lewis is a former journalist who has written for a variety of international business publications. He is best known for founding LEWIS PR – a global agency that has gone from start-up to forty offices worldwide in 15 years. He is also the author of “The Unemployables”, a profile of forty inspirational leaders.

Director of Communication and Information Management, International Committee of the Red Cross

 Charlotte Lindsey-Curtet began her career at the ICRC in 1993, spending six years in various conflict-affected countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, and Tajikistan. She currently heads a team of 180 at ICRC headquarters in Geneva as Director of Communication and Information Management.

Senior Executive Vice President, Public Affairs and Communication Department, Eni

As well as his current role, Stefano Lucchini is a visiting fellow of Oxford University, a member of the board of directors of AGI and teaches at the Advanced School of Journalism at Milan’s Catholic University.

CEO, Grayling

Michael Murphy is CEO of Grayling, which was formed by the merger of Trimedia, Grayling and Mmd. He recently chaired a UK Government Department of Trade and Industry and was a Director of Think London. He is a Fellow of The Institute of Public Relations and a Trustee of the charity Action on Addiction.

Vice President Communications and CSR, Unilever

Patricia O’Hayer has been the Vice President of Communications at Unilever since March 2007. She has previously developed and implemented issues and crisis management systems for companies such as Tetra Pak, Baxter Healthcare and Dow Corning.

Senior Vice President of Communications & Government Relations, BASF SE

Elisabeth Schick has been Senior Vice President of Communications & Government Relations BASF Group since January 2001, having held a variety of roles with the company since 1993. These have included being director of Corporate Communications Ludwigshafen and Europe, working within the Human Resources Division, and completely reorganising the company’s PR department in Japan.

Senior Partner and CEO, Europe, Ketchum Pleon

Timo Sieg had worked at Kothes Klewes since 1996 and climbed the latter from Senior Consultant to CEO of Pleon Germany, and then to CEO of Ketchum Pleon Europe. He is Deputy President of the German Consultancy Association of Marketing and Management.

Associate Professor in Communications, Norwegian School of Management, Oslo

Having begun her career in communications in the United States, Dr. Simcic Bronn has been an Associate Professor in the Communication Department of the Norwegian School of Management since 2000. She also holds the post of Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Public Relations Program.

President and CEO, BDR Associates Romania

Catalina Stan is a Senior Member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and Director of Superbrands Romania since 2005. She previously worked as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte & Touche.

CEO EMEA, APCO Worldwide

Brad Staples, President International, is responsible for APCO Worldwide’s operations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, India, China and South East Asia, and serves on APCO’s executive committee. Throughout his career, he has devised reputation and public affairs programmes for multinationals and interest groups across a range of sectors and policy areas. He also leads APCO’s Global Client Management initiative, coordinating APCO global client managers and developing best practices that ensure APCO’s high standards of client service are consistent across all operations.

Executive Vice President & General Manager EMEA, Waggener Edstrom

Chris Talago has led a number of award winning in-house and agency teams ranging from global agency lead for IBM Software Group, to HP, BMC and Advanced Micro Devices. He has worked in Africa, US and EMEA for over 15 years on integrated communications strategies and held senior posts for Text 100, H&K and now Waggener Edstrom. Formerly, Chris served in the British Army and is active in raising funds for veterans’ charities.

President, Grupo Inforpress

Nuria Vilanova founded Inforpress at the age of 23. Before, she worked as a journalist for El Pais, Catalunya Radio and Europa Press and as a Correspondent for Garraf-Penedes.

Head of Communications, European Automobile Manufacturers Association

A professional Journalist, Sigrid de Vries has worked for the Dutch financial daily in Amsterdam, Brussels (EU affairs) and Berlin. She became Director of Communications and Public Relations of ACEA in 2006.