8TH ANNUAL

Liam FitzPatrick has 25 years of experience with change, PR and internal communications comes from working in-house and in consultancy.
Liam has worked in civil engineering, energy, manufacturing and transportation as well as telecoms. He was Global Head of Internal Communications at Marconi during its financial restructuring and has worked on change and transformation projects in a wide variety of situations. He is particularly interested in developing teams, research and planning.
He is a council member and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Lacea Loader is Director: Communication and Marketing at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa. Her academic qualifications include a BA honours degree in Communication, a BA honours degree in Language Studies, and a master’s degree in Higher Education Studies. Reporting to the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, she is responsible for institutional communication and marketing and provides high-level strategic support to the executive management of the university. She is an international award-winning communication specialist and member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

She was national Chairperson of the South African Association for Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (MACE) from 2016-2017 and served as MACE Regional Chairperson from 2014-2015. She is an evaluator for the IABC Africa Blue Ribbon and IABC Gold Quill Panels since 2012. She serves on the MACE Excellence Awards evaluation panel since 2012.

Nicki Allitt is the Global Head of Communications at Syngenta International, headquartered in Switzerland, and is responsible for Corporate Functions and the Internal Communications digital strategy. Previously, she worked in senior communication roles at Shell International in the Netherlands. Nicki has lived and worked in 5 different countries for a number of large multi-national corporations in the life science, agricultural, oil and gas, tourism, and media broadcast sectors. She has a passion for employee engagement and leveraging digital technologies to enhance the employee experience.

Edna has developed and delivered top-quality integrated communications strategies in large global companies and public organizations. She has held various global communications roles at Nissan, STMicroelectronics, Philip Morris International and UNESCO and was a consultant for the OECD. She has also taught communications and history at the University of California Los Angeles, University of Arkansas, University of Paris, and Washington State University.

MIKE KLEIN is an internal communication consultant based in Delft in the Netherlands. Mike is Principal of Changing The Terms, a blog and consulting practice focusing on strategic content, selective engagement and sense-making.

Mike has been active in the profession as a writer, consultant and strategist since discovering internal communications as an MBA student at London Business School in the 1990's. A dual US and British citizen, Mike has managed more than 20 political campaigns across the US and has focused much of his extensive writing on the application of political communication principles in a corporate context. He serves as regional treasurer for IABC in Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

The first large-scale change initiative I worked on was an upgrade of a financial system with 4,000 users across the University of Oxford, a devolved and complex organizational structure. In 2015, took on a Head of Engagement Communications at Newton Europe, a management consultancy focused on operational improvements, working across retail, healthcare, defence and social care. I set up a new change communication team there to support Newton’s multimillion pound change programmes. With 90,000 staff across the UK in supermarkets and offices, I then came to understand what “big” really meant, as change initiatives go! After my experience of consulting for a couple of years, I then joined Oxfam and learnt of the complications of working globally across a remote and diverse organizational culture. In 2017 I joined Oxford University Press – which despite what the name suggests – is a global academic and educational publisher, with 7,500 staff across 52 countries. I set up a new change comms team and then – after about 18 months – took on the global Internal Communications role, with continuing responsibility for our change communications team

Chad has a broad communication background, having worked in marketing, public relations and internal communication roles over the last 16 years. He’s currently Head of Communication Strategy, Consumer and Employee Campaigns at Nationwide, leading on developing and executing external and internal campaigns and accountable for shaping how communication drives the organisational strategy.

Having worked at Nationwide for eight years, he has led teams such as Internal Communication Business Partnering, Vulnerable Customers and Social Investment. Prior to Nationwide, Chad worked for the agency Chime Communications, specialising in devising communication campaigns linked to social purpose and sustainability. His early career saw him work for Credit Suisse and ABN AMRO.

Sanjoy has over 21 years’ experience of leading internal and change communications for major global companies. Amongst these are Fortune 500 companies such as Reckitt Benckiser, HSBC, Coca-Cola European Partners, Philips Electronics and Teva Pharmaceuticals. Most recently he was Brexit Communications lead for international insurance company Hiscox plc.

Gihan is an award winner Corporate Communication Consultant with 19 years spanning through numerous multinational organisations within different sectors. Gihan specialises in designing and delivering effective employee and stakeholder communication strategies and plans during a time of change across several sectors. She has a flair for building strong, credible relationships at all levels ensuring the right messages and strategies are implemented correctly.

Gihan currently leads the Talent and Learning department in BP. Prior to BP Gihan worked in several organisations as the Interim Head of Communications including Department for Int. Trade Saudi Arabia, HSBC Asset Management UK, Barclays Internal Audit UK, M&S HR UK, the Riyadh Metro Project Saudi Arabia and The World Health Organization ethics and health dept., Genève.

Highlights of Gihan’s Career included

• First female to work in the Saudi construction sector
• Winning the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Best Employee Engagement Awardin 2016.
• Creating and developing the Consumer and Retail Sector for the Department for International Trade (DIT) in Saudi Arabia.
• Designing and delivering bespoke media messages and public speaking training sessions for more than 100 Executives and senior executives representing FTSE 100 organisations.
• Leading the Employee & Stakeholder Engagement Department for Barclays UK Internal Audit to ensure the bank’s new strategy, corporate culture and values were communicated effectively to staff and external stakeholders.
• Transforming HSBC’s complex anti-money laundering key messages into simple language communicated to 3,000 employees across 26 countries