My Job
I lead APCO’s Brussels office, head our European public affairs practice and act as a global lead for our work with Microsoft. I tend to work alongside our policy experts and sectoral practices to develop and implement public affairs and wider communication strategies and campaigns. This wider work includes crisis management, stakeholder engagement, and communication around material events such as litigation, M&A and anti-trust.
My job also plugs me into the APCO network across Europe and around the world, where I contribute to international projects and help bridge the gaps in understanding that occur naturally between regions as diverse as the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
Both within Brussels and abroad, my job focuses on finding the most effective strategies and narratives for my clients. I pare down important and detailed challenges or objectives to their essentials, then build and activate creative, thoughtful and energetic campaigns around that core, using the full range of APCO’s communication tools and disciplines.
My Experience
Well, I’ve been in Brussels, with APCO, since 2008 and time is still flying by. Before this I had 10+ years in London, largely in public affairs. My early years, during the dot.com boom/bust, were technology-led and key clauses of the Electronic Communications Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act still lurk in my mind.
For a while I was lured out of consultancy by The Royal Parks, which provided me with one of the best offices in London, in the middle of Hyde Park. I learned invaluable lessons in stakeholder management (naturists by the Serpentine), crisis communication (the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain), high profile events (Live 8 and the 2003 Anti-War March) and realpolitik.
Returning to agency life, I dived into financial communications in London before being lured to APCO in Brussels. Here, I’ve learned incredible amounts from both my colleagues and clients, dealing with the creation and consequences of major policies and legislation, from the post-2008 tsunami of financial measures to today’s regulation of big tech.
My Specialisms
My Proudest Achievements
Well, my Dutch Catholic mother has views about pride and, if nothing else, it can make you forget that others often play a critical role in “your” success. Still, I’ve done some things I am genuinely pleased with, from supporting Bombardier’s successful argument against the Siemens-Alstom merger through to helping advocate for Ukraine and its accession to the EU. Those were still achievements as part of a team, not just within APCO, but with partners in legal firms and other consultancies. Victories can be all the sweeter for being shared.
My Education
Robinson College, University of Cambridge, History.
My Languages
English.
My Interests outside work
I read way too much science fiction and actual history, which I’m fairly sure causes cognitive dissonance. I’ve also developed an unreasonable fascination with gin and with 14th century swordplay, another pair of things that shouldn’t be carelessly combined.
My Favourite Brussels anecdote
Over twenty years as a public affairs consultant more or less proves the observation that “life’s barely long enough to get good at one thing, so be careful what you get good at”. Most of the stories I have can’t be put down in print, some can barely be said out loud in polite company. That being said, the anecdote I use the most, professionally speaking, relates to the denouement of a doubtless apocryphal Council meeting, where the French representative raises his hand after the final compromise has been brokered and says, “Whilst I agree this works in practice, does it work in theory?”