Daniel Tisch

Argyle Public Relationships

President & CEO

Daniel Tisch is widely known as an international public relations professional, speaker, writer and industry leader. He is the CEO of Argyle Public Relationships, one of Canada’s largest independent PR firms, a Fellow of the Canadian Public Relations Society, and the 2011-2013 chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the confederation of the world’s major PR and communication professional associations.

Since Daniel became Argyle’s CEO and owner in 2003, the firm has grown from 10 employees in Toronto to more than 120 across eight major North American cities today. Argyle has earned more than 300 awards in that period, including twice being named IABC Global Mid-Sized Agency of the Year (2017 and 2018), and two Canadian Agency of the Year honours (PRovoke Media in 2020, Canadian Public Relations Society in 2021). Since 2015, Argyle has appeared six times on lists of Canada's fastest-growing companies in the Globe & Mail and Canadian Business magazine.

As a consultant, Daniel has advised a long list of Global 500/Fortune 500 companies as well as both Canadian and international government leaders. He is particularly well-known for expertise in reputation, issues and crisis management, serving in 2009 as the lead communications advisor to an industry affected by the largest food recall in North American history. Daniel’s other areas of practice include reputation management strategy, stakeholder engagement, governance and executive leadership communications.

As Global Alliance chair, Daniel led the organization to unprecedented growth, chaired a process to develop an international consensus on the roles and responsibilities of twenty-first century public relations, co-chaired the two largest World Public Relations Forums in history, launched a “best-of-the-best” global awards program and an international research study on the state of public relations with the University of Southern California, and represented the profession on the International Integrated Reporting Council.

Earlier in his career, Daniel held senior communications roles in the Canadian government, including serving as Senior Policy Advisor and Acting Chief of Staff to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the latter role he was a member of the Canadian delegation to the G7 Economic Summit.

Daniel has spoken at conferences on every continent, lectured on public relations at Queen’s University at Kingston (Canada) since 1996, and contributed to leading PR and marketing textbooks. He appears regularly in broadcast, print and online media, including recent comments in the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Reuters, CBC Television, Global News, PR Week and Strategy. He is a member of CPRS, the IABC and the Arthur W. Page Society.

Born in Madrid, Spain, and raised in Toronto, Daniel speaks English, French and Spanish. He holds two degrees from Queen’s University — a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies and a Master of Business Administration. Daniel is the Vice Chair of the Queen’s University Board of Trustees, a leader in the international Scouting movement and a board member of Social Venture Partners International.

Greg Vanier

Edelman Canada

VP, Crisis and Reputation Risk & National Lead of Data Security and Privacy

Greg Vanier is Senior Vice President, Crisis & Risk, and National Lead of Edelman Canada’s Data Security and Privacy practice.

Greg has a deep understanding of the complexities associated with data security and privacy communications and has helped both Canadian and foreign companies respond to breaches of personal information, ransomware attacks, corporate espionage and security vulnerabilities.

Greg represents clients across many industries and sectors including mining, transportation, financial services, accommodation and hospitality, consumer packaged goods, food manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and agriculture. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, non-profits and government agencies, and regularly presents on the topic crisis and risk communications at universities, conferences and within corporate boardrooms.

Greg has spent the entirely of his career working as a crisis communicator, helping clients respond to a variety of challenging issues, including acts of domestic terrorism, industrial emergencies, oil spills and pipeline ruptures, food borne illness outbreaks, product recalls, labour disruptions, workforce reductions, hostile takeovers and trade disputes, animal welfare issues, and staff misconduct.

Nancy Bistritz-Balkan

Purchasing Power

Senior Director Corporate Communications

Katie Creaser

ICR

Senior Vice President

Katie Creaser is Senior Vice President, Technology PR at ICR where she specializes in emerging tech, cybersecurity and IT solutions/services. Katie is passionate about helping brands tell their story through a thoughtful, holistic and measurable corporate communications strategy.

During her 15-year PR career, Katie has managed communications campaigns that have earned accolades from PRSA, Hermes, PR News and BtoB Magazine/Ad Age, among others. She regularly speaks at industry conferences and events and her commentary has appeared in publications including Entrepreneur, Forbes, Huffington Post, Inc., PR News and PR Daily. In 2016, Katie was recognized by the New York Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA-NY) as one of its 15 Under 35, an award highlighting the most promising young leaders working in communications in the New York metro area. She recently served on the PR Council’s PRC Next Board, comprised of 12 rising leaders tasked with bringing the perspective of the next generation to current industry challenges. Prior to joining ICR, Katie was senior vice president at Affect, a NYC-based PR agency specializing in technology.

Katie holds a BA in Public Relations from Marist College. She lives on Long Island with her husband and spends her free time trying to keep up with their two young sons.

Mary Masson

Michigan Medicine

Director of Public Relations

Professional communications director with more than 30 years experience in journalism, public relations, social media strategy, employee management and crisis communication. Currently a communication executive with Michigan Medicine, the 5th ranked hospital system in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Strong professional with a bachelor's focused in journalism and liberal arts from Central Michigan University.

Ginger Buxa Plumbo

Mayo Clinic

Communications Manager, Issues & Crisis Communications

Ginger Plumbo is a communications manager at Mayo Clinic, a top-ranked nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, with locations in Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona.  She leads communications and media relations efforts for Mayo Clinic’s transplant practice. Her role also involves issues management and crisis communications efforts, as well as documentary projects at Mayo Clinic.

Ginger holds a Master of Arts in mass communications from North Dakota State University, with an emphasis on issues management and crisis communications, and a Bachelor of Arts in public relations from the University of North Dakota. She has over 25 years of experience in communications and public relations, mostly for non-profit and healthcare organizations.

Ginger lives in Rochester, Minnesota with her two school-aged daughters, a Goldendoodle, and an ever-growing herd of her daughters’ stuffed animals.

Robyn Jenkins-Blum

Cisco

Head of Business Critical Communications

Robyn Jenkins-Blum oversees Cisco’s Business Critical Communications (BCC) team responsible for crisis and issues management and communications for mergers and acquisitions and investments. BCC plays pivotal role in shaping Cisco’s corporate reputation by managing and providing strategic communications counsel on complex issues such as product and security vulnerabilities, data exposure incidents, customer escalations, employee and workplace matters, litigation and more.

A veteran of the technology industry spending more than 19 years at Cisco, Robyn has led all aspects of corporate public relations including financial communications, M&A, corporate social responsibility, people and culture, and corporate reputation management. She serves as a company spokesperson and has provided strategic PR counsel to Cisco executive leadership including the chairman and CEO, CFO, CSO and general counsel.

Prior to joining Cisco, Robyn held public relations positions with several leading technology corporations. She managed public relations for Intel Corporation’s multi-billion-dollar mobile processor and handheld products group, promoted the company’s women in technology initiative and implemented consumer press technology education programs. She also held roles at Acer America and Logitech.

Robyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations from San Jose State University. She has been recognized by Business Insider as one of the technology industry’s top 51 PR people in 2017, as well as PR News’ 2019 “Top Women in PR.”