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.

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.

Lori Eberenz

KFC

Senior Manager, Public Affairs

Eberenz has been a key leader in reviving KFC with fun, exciting, and breakthrough PR initiatives that delivered outstanding results. She helped mastermind an extra crispy sunscreen viral stunt, orchestrated the brand storming the Golden Globes, and rolled out the promotion for several new product launches.
The efforts landed KFC back on the radar. PR-generated buzz has played a significant part of providing a big boost to key brand metrics such as relevance, quality, and value. The chain has seen 11 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth after decades of decline.
While half of her job is generating good buzz, the other half is controlling negative spin and derailing crises. She has been a part of the business strategy to better train restaurant personnel and has personally led the control of issues before they reached a crisis point that could have derailed the turnaround.
Her focus on dealing with crisis at the restaurant level, as well as the corporate level, is a breakthrough approach for the industry, and Eberenz trained franchisees and restaurant managers on how to better use social media responsibly and deal with potential crises in their restaurants.

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.

Amanda Coleman

Former Head of Communications, Greater Manchester Police

Crisis Communications Consultant, AMANDA COLEMAN LTD

Amanda is the director of the crisis communication consultancy Amanda Coleman Communication Ltd. Based in the UK, she has 20 years’ experience in emergency services communication and leading law enforcement communication at a time of crisis.

In 2017, Amanda led the law enforcement communication response to dealing with the Manchester Arena terrorist attack. She has more than two decades of experience in managing crises.

She is the author of Crisis Communication Strategies published by Kogan Page in May 2020. It brings together advice for preparing for a crisis, dealing with it and moving effectively into the recovery phase. Amanda has worked as a journalist and is a Chartered PR Practitioner as well as a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Public Relations and Communication Association. She is an international speaker on crisis communication. Her blog can be found here https://amandacomms1.wordpress.com/

Sean Greenwood

Ben & Jerry's

Grand poobah of PR

Sean Greenwood is the grand poobah of PR for Ben & Jerry’s, a title he has earned one scoop at a time. Starting in 1988, Greenwood has seen triumphs and tribulations during his many years with the company, from experiencing Flavor Graveyard creations like Sugar Plum ice cream to flavor sensations like Cherry Garcia. Greenwood took interest in sharing Ben & Jerry’s good news and mission, namely, that organizations can thrive when they lead with their values and consider more than making a profit. In his PR position, Greenwood has created programs, helped with flavors and managed relationships Sir Elton John, Stephen Colbert and more. He led communication strategy for the company’s global climate “Save Our Swirled” initiative and flavor, the equity and EmpowerMint campaign to highlight systemic racism, the launch of The Tonight Dough starring Jimmy Fallon on on the show’s first anniversary, and the unveiling of Ben & Jerry’s non-dairy/vegan line of products. When not poobahing, Greenwood serves as director of public relations and communications at Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in Vermont, resulting in billions of annual impressions served.