Bios

Gustavo Averbuj
CEO, Ketchum Argentina, and Director, Latin America
Buenos Aires

Gustavo has more than 16 years experience in serving global PR clients. He is a former president of the Argentine Public Relations Council and has broad experience in media. He was the editor of business magazines like Negocios, Empresar and ENOIKOS and contributor to the Buenos Aires Herald and other publications. He has received several awards including two Clios, two EIKONs and a scholarship from the British Council.

Judy Brennan
Senior Vice President and Director, Corporate and Healthcare Practice, Ketchum Midwest
Chicago

Judy is director of Ketchum's Midwest Corporate and Healthcare Practice. Along with that role, she provides corporate and financial communications counsel and support across numerous disciplines, including long-term, multifaceted positioning campaigns, crisis communications, employee communications, marketing support, and special situation support, including post-merger integration communications, senior-level executive changes, proxy campaigns, and transaction and litigation support. As a senior member of Ketchum's Issues & Crisis Management Network, Judy led a three-city team to provide counsel and support for a major global TARP bank during last year's unprecedented financial crisis.

Prior to joining Ketchum, Judy was a managing director at Sard Verbinnen & Company, where she managed a number of long-term corporate/financial positioning assignments, including State Street Corporation, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Thornburg Mortgage, Investment Company Institute, Nashua Corporation, and First Industrial Realty Corporation.

Rod Cartwright
Managing Director, Corporate and Public Affairs, Ketchum Pleon
London

Rod Cartwright is an expert in government relations, public policy, regulatory affairs, stakeholder relations, and issues and reputation management. With more than 15 years of experience working for leading independent consultancies and international PR networks, he has advised clients at the highest levels on their issues management and public affairs strategies.

Rod is a board member of the U.K.'s Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) and chair of its Public Affairs Committee, and he recently acted as an industry witness as part of an ongoing inquiry into lobbying by a U.K. Parliament scrutiny committee. He has also lectured on stakeholder management at Imperial College London.

In 2008, he was voted PRCA PR Personality of the Year — an award that recognizes "a high profile communications professional, who has raised the standards in the industry or improved the reputation of the PR industry."

Sean Fitzgerald
Partner, Ketchum, and Managing Director, Ketchum West
Los Angeles

Sean Fitzgerald serves as managing director of all Ketchum operations in the western U.S. As a member of Ketchum's Global Issues & Crisis Management team, he also acts as the regional leader for all crisis work supporting Ketchum clients based in the western U.S., and acts as an ongoing global resource for many of the firm's national and global corporate clients.

Sean provides strategic counsel to Ketchum clients on a wide range of issues including corporate reputation, crisis management, corporate social responsibility and media relations. He currently serves as senior strategist for Hyundai Motor America, Chase Card Services and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.

Sean has more than 20 years of experience in strategic media relations, supporting both corporate and marketing communications. Prior to joining Ketchum, he served as vice president of corporate responsibility and global issues management for Mattel Inc., the world's largest toy manufacturer, where he also headed the company's groundbreaking ethical manufacturing program. Before his position at Mattel, Sean served as director of global communications for San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co.

Joachim Klewes
Senior Partner, Ketchum Pleon Germany
Düsseldorf

Joachim Klewes is co-founder of Kohtes&Klewes Kommunikation, which is now Ketchum Pleon. He consults some of Ketchum Pleon's largest international clients and organizations and has expertise in the fields of strategic communications, including corporate communications, board and CEO positioning, coaching, crisis and issues management, public affairs and change management, and organizational development.

Joachim holds an honorary professorship at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf and is founder and senior partner of opinion research institute Com.X. He is involved in major research projects within the scope of population and target group studies, complex evaluation studies, and point-of-performance reviews of communication instruments and campaigns. Joachim also is a frequent writer and editor of various books about marketing and communications. His latest book, Reputation Capital: Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century, was published in November 2009.

Simeon Mellalieu
General Manager, Ketchum Hong Kong
Hong Kong

As head of Ketchum's Corporate and Technology Practice in Hong Kong, Simeon Mellalieu provides senior counsel on corporate positioning, reputation management, brand building, issues and crisis management, and sponsorship and sports marketing. He also heads the Broadcast Media Strategy Group for Ketchum Greater China, working across the agency's specialist practices to maximize broadcast coverage for clients using such tools as B-roll production, satellite picture distribution and media tours, event management, studio placement, and media training.

Before joining Ketchum, he worked for specialist broadcast PR agency Bulletin International in London and Hong Kong and for tech PR firm Warman & Bannister in Cambridge, U.K. Prior to his PR career, Simeon worked for several years in archaeology, lecturing and conducting research on expeditions throughout Europe and Asia.

Geoffrey Rowan
Partner, Ketchum, and Managing Director, Ketchum Canada
Toronto

Geoff Rowan has more than 30 years of communications experience in the U.S. and Canada, including more than 20 years in the media, writing for major print and broadcast outlets in both countries. His work in public relations has involved high-stakes, high-profile communications strategies and tactics related to hostile takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and other financial communications, as well as a wide range of crisis communications situations, and scores of projects aimed at building corporate reputation and recognition.

As a member of the leadership team of Ketchum's Global Corporate Practice, and one of Ketchum's Global Corporate Strategists, Geoff has helped to manage a number of high-profile, multinational clients, including the Russian Federation, IBM, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Direct Energy, and others.

As a business journalist for a decade at the Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, he was recognized for his coverage of the technology and transportation sectors, receiving a nomination for a National Newspaper Award. A decade writing for major U.S. newspapers rounds out his broad understanding of the North American media. He is also the author of The Nine-Week Business Diet, a book that counsels small-business managers on the issues they will face in a tough economy.

Petra Sammer
Managing and Creative Director, Ketchum Munich
Munich

Petra is responsible for the strategic and creative development of Ketchum in Germany. She has more than 15 years of experience in counseling clients in classic public relations, marketing and corporate communications. She and her team concentrate on reputation management, product and B-to-B communication, brand identity and positioning, crisis and issue management, and change management.

She also is a lecturer at the Bayerische Akademie für Werbung (BAW), the Bavarian Advertising Academy.

Robert Wreschniok
Business Director, Ketchum Pleon Germany
Munich

Robert is a senior consultant at Ketchum Pleon and is responsible for reputation management and stakeholder dialogue. After completing his M.A. in international relations, he received a certification for strategic foundation management from the University of Basel. He is a board member of the European Centre for Reputation Studies and spokesman for the Private Institute of Foundation Law. Robert is also co-editor of the book Reputation Capital: Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century, which was published in November 2009.