Thursday, December 10th 2009, at the Hofburg, Vienna
Expert jury members ensure balanced evaluation
A list of esteemed communications specialists were carefully selected as jury members for the European Excellence Awards 2009 to ensure a fair and balanced evaluation of all nominees. The Judges' range of expertise covers the whole of Europe, from the perspective of both in-house and agency communication departments. During an online voting session in October, and a two-day jury meeting in December, The jury assessed the creativity, innovation, cost-efficiency and strategy of the projects submitted, and awarded the best in European communications and PR in 2009.
Chairwoman & Chairman
Chairwoman Florence Ranson
Senior Adviser PR & Communications, European Banking Federation
Previously, she was Secretary General of the European Advertising Tripartite. She was also Project Manager of 'Team Europe', the Commission's network of conference speakers throughout Member states and candidate countries.
Chairman Marc-Oliver Voigt
Editor-in Chief, Communication Director magazine
Prior to his current position, he worked as a writer for the Financial Times Deutschland. He took up his position at Communication Director in 2006.
Jury
Markus Beeko
Director Campaigns & Communications, Amnesty International
Markus Beeko is the Director of Campaigns & Communications for Amnesty International (German section). Previously, he worked as the Director of Communications for the Swiss Think Tank Prognos AG, which is part of the German Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. Before that he was a freelance Communications advisor and worked in advertising for about ten years.
Pascal Beucler
Vice-President, Brand Strategy & International Network, Publicis Consultants Worldwide
Pascal Beucler joined a subsidiary of Publicis Consultants in 1987, and was promoted to a partner in 1994. He is an Associate Professor at CELSA (Paris IV Sorbonne) and a Visiting Professor at HEC (French Business College). He has conducted research and published articles on various topics, and in particular on the relationship between text and images.
David Bickerton
Director of Communications, BP
David has responsibility for BP’s internal and external communications including its corporate reporting programme, BP’s reputation measurement, its extensive online presence and communications to over 90,000 employees globally. He has over 25 years experience in the field of brand, advertising and corporate communications working with many of the World’s largest brands.
Robin Boon
Group Director of Corporate Relations, TNT N.V.
Robin has been responsible for TNT’s Corporate Relations since April 2008. TNT N.V. is a global player in Express and Mail with 161,500 employees, covering 200 countries worldwide.
David Brain
President and CEO, Europe, Edelman
David runs Edelman’s 15 offices in 12 markets in Europe. His first book, Crowd Surfing, how to survive and thrive in the era of consumer empowerment, was published in September by Bloomsbury. He originally trained as a journalist, and has worked at PR agencies Paragon Communications, Burson-Marsteller and Weber Shandwick, and was once a brand planner for WPP
Colin Byrne
CEO, Weber Shandwick Europe
Colin Byrne is one of the UK’s leading PR practitioners with over twenty years’ experience spanning domestic and international media relations, politics, global campaigns and issues management. He joined Weber Shandwick in 1995, rising to lead the public affairs practice in London in 1997 and is now CEO of the global agency’s European network and a member of the global management team.
Ash Coleman-Smith
Managing Director EMEA, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Ash runs Ogilvy PR’s EMEA agency network encompassing 28 countries. With over 20 years experience in international corporate and consumer communications, he has led many high-profile brand building, issues management and influencer campaigns. Prior to joining Ogilvy PR, Ash was Deputy Managing Director at Cohn & Wolfe UK and a Senior Director at Edelman.
Salvador da Cunha
President, Lift Consulting
Before changing to Public Relations, he worked as an economic journalist and editor. He was the founder of many Portuguese economic newspapers, and founder shareholder of Jornal de Negocios. For the past 14 years he has been CEO and Owner of Lift Consulting, one of the leading PR Agencies in Portugal. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of ICCO – the International Communications Consultancy Organisation - since May 2009.
Kristina Ebenius
Managing Director Europe, Schwartz Communications
Kristina Ebenius joined Schwartz Communications 1999 and opened Schwartz's European headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden in 2006. She has previously worked at PR agencies such as Edelman and Andréasson Public Relations.
Szabolcs Ferencz
Vice President Corporate Communications, MOL Group PLC
Before his current role, he worked as Head of Communications for the Hungarian Prime Minister's Office and as a Political Campaign Manager.
Jeremy Galbraith
CEO EMEA, Burson-Marsteller
Jeremy has spent over 20 years helping leading companies and organisations manage critical issues and influence European political processes at European Union and Member State level - to preserve or advance business goals. He was previously the CEO of Burson-Marsteller in Brussels from 2000 to 2007 having first joined Burson-Marsteller in 1995 to head up the UK Public Affairs Practice.
Neil Hedges
Chairman, Fishburn Hedges
Following an early career in advertising, Neil Hedges joined Valin Pollen, becoming its chief executive in 1987. He co-founded Fishburn Hedges in 1991 and is now chairman of the Fishburn Hedges Group.
Herbert Heitmann
President, European Association of Communication Directors
He is Senior Vice President of Global Communications at SAP AG. Alongside his current role, he is also a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, and an associate of the European Round Table of Industrialists.
Milan Hejl
President, AMI Communications
He founded the agency which is now the clear market leader in the Czech Republic., as well as operating in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. Prior to his current role, he founded and managed an independent news agency for several years.
Caroline Hempstead
Vice President Group Corporate Communications, AstraZeneca
Before she came to AstraZeneca, Ms Hempstead was the VP of Downstream External Affairs at Royal Dutch Shell Plc. She also held communication roles at Inchcape Plc, The London Stock Exchange and within other industries.
Jon Higgins
Senior Partner and CEO EMEA, Ketchum
Prior to his EMEA role, he was CEO of Ketchum London. He also spent six years with Ketchum in California, where he held overall senior management responsibility for the firm's offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.
Chris Lewis
CEO, Lewis PR
Chris Lewis is a former journalist who has written for a variety of international business publications. He is best known for founding LEWIS PR – a global agency that has gone from start-up to forty offices worldwide in 15 years. He is also the author of "The Unemployables", a profile of forty inspirational leaders.
Stefano Lucchini
Senior Executive Vice President, Public Affairs and Communication Department, Eni Italia
As well as his current role, Stefano is a visiting fellow of Oxford University, a member of the board of directors of AGI and teaches at the Advanced School of Journalism at Milan’s Catholic University.
Michael Murphy
CEO, President, and Founder, Trimedia
He recently chaired a UK Government Department of Trade and Industry and was director of Think London. Michael is a Fellow of The Institute of Public Relations and a Trustee of the charity Action on Addiction.
Elisabeth Schick
Senior Vice President of Communications & Government Relations, BASF SE
Elisabeth Schick has been Senior Vice President of Communications & Government Relations BASF Group since January 2001, having held a variety of roles with the company since 1993. These have included being director of Corporate Communications Ludwigshafen and Europe, working within the Human Resources Division, and completely reorganising the company's PR department in Japan.
Philipp Schindera
Senior Executive Vice President Corporate Communications, Deutsche Telekom AG
Philipp Schindera began his career as press spokesman for paging services at T-Mobile Deutschland, and has worked his way up through the company to his present role.
Timo Sieg
CEO Europe, PLEON
He had worked at Kothes Klewes since 1996 and climbed the latter from Senior Consultant to CEO of Pleon Germany, and then to CEO of Pleon Europe. He is Deputy President of the German Consultancy Association of Marketing and Management.
Peggy Simcic Brønn
Associate Professor in Communications, Norwegian School of Management, Oslo
Having begun her career in communications in the United States, Dr. Simcic Bronn has been an Associate Professor in the Communication Department of the Norwegian School of Management since 2000. She also holds the post of Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Public Relations Program.
Catalina Stan
President and CEO, BDR Associates Romania
She is a Senior Member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and Director of Superbrands Romania since 2005. She previously worked as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte & Touche.
Chris Talago
Executive Vice President & General Manager EMEA, Waggener Edstrom
Chris came to Waggener Edstrom after serving as EMEA regional head of communications for Advanced Micro Devices Inc., a Fortune 500 technology hardware corporation. While there, he was accountable for all communications strategy and planning within region. Before moving to his post at AMD, Chris was a Board Director for Hill and Knowlton.
Kerry Underhill
Senior Vice President, Group Communications, Royal Ahold
Prior to joining Ahold in 2005, Mr Underhill held various senior communications roles in financial services, including global head of Corporate Communications and Marketing for the investment banking division of Deutsche Bank and UBS and European Head of Communications for Swiss Bank Corporation.
Nuria Vilanova
President, Grupo Inforpress
Nuria founded Inforpress at the age of 23. Before, she worked as a journalist for El Pais, Catalunya Radio and Europa Press and as a correspondent for Garraf-Penedes.
Sigrid de Vries
Head of Communications, European Automobile Manufacturers Association
A professional journalist, Sigrid has worked for the Dutch financial daily in Amsterdam, Brussels (EU affairs) and Berlin. She became Director of Communications and Public Relations of ACEA in 2006.