Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain
Extensive experience at international organizations in communications, government affairs, advocacy and journalism. Key skills include corporate communications, media relations, international relations, public policy analysis, strategic negotiations, speechwriting and investigative journalism. On the ground work experience in Europe, Latin America, United States, Canada and the Gulf Region and significant experience managing remote teams in EMEA and Latin America. Sector-specific experience includes aviation, financial services, investment banking, tech startups, green transition / climate and commercial real estate. Educational experience includes public policy coursework at the Geneva Graduate Institute, M.A in Journalism and Media Studies from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid / El País and a BA in Iberian and Latin American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am an empathetic person, team player and enjoy mentoring junior colleagues. Outside of the office I like running, cycling, International travel, reading, film, theater and following global and local politics. US and Spanish citizen and am fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
Responsible for external and internal communications for Europe, Middle East and Africa. I've built, and now lead, a remote and hybrid team across the diverse EMEA region. Designed and executed EMEA comms plan, managed multiple communications agencies and boosted Aon’s external exposure leveraging media relations, executive profiling, social media and speaking opportunities. I also am responsible for internal communications for our 15,000+ employee region. Other areas of my remit include crisis communications and brand / reputation risk management, change management, executive profiling and strategic comms coaching and development for C-level executives.
Led a team responsible for Chairman's personal social media accounts, one of LinkedIn's top ten global influencers. Investigated, wrote, edited and published content on LinkedIn, twitter and Instagram. Proposed and executed strategy in conjunction with Chairman, external advisors and other top Santander executives.
External advocacy and communications manager at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), for the Europe region. Responsibilities included leading communications in Europe's regional office in Madrid and representing the airlines in public policy circles and with key external stakeholders. Speaking opportunities have included the topics of industry's environmental impact, airspace capacity, airport infrastructure constraints and the future of commercial aviation. Comms work included crisis comms, change management, etc.
Communications manager at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), responsible for the Latin America and Caribbean regions. Bilingual spokesperson for IATA. Achievements included successful development and implementation of strategic communications plans; among them, sustained campaign about trapped airlines funds in Venezuela. Substantially increased IATA's profile in regional and national media after building strong relationships with key members of the press and other stakeholders. Acted as regional account manager in the Americas region with colleagues to provide internal and external communications guidance and ensure strategic communications best practices were adhered to. External speaking opportunities have included crisis communications presentations for member airlines. Other responsibilities: Press releases Proofreading Op-ed writing and placement Speechwriting Agency management Social media Event development and management
Head of communications and PR for various Campus Party technology festivals, including 10,000-attendee event held in Berlin, Germany in August 2012. Opened Berlin office, hired local communications team and directed messages and PR for the event. Generated hundreds of press impacts and hosted more than 300 accredited journalists. The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, BBC, AP, Reuters and all of the major German media did extensive stories about Campus Party Europe in Berlin. Main achievements: • Successfully designed and implemented Communications and PR strategy for first ever Campus Party outside of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world. • Negotiated media partnerships with the top German media organizations to assure coverage before, during and after event. • Received excellent feedback from internal and external stakeholders about quality of work and results achieved, including an in-depth program on the BBC.