Bio

 

Chris is a strategic scientist, ex-politician, public servant and businessman with 30 years' experience in strategic and board level communications around the world. He has managed numerous landmark communications projects during his career.

 

He was closely associated with the democratic transition in South Africa, serving as Joint Chairman of the Communications Working Group in the Office of the President, Deputy Director of the South African Communication Service, Director of Communications in the National Operations Centre, and Communications Head of the Ministry of Defence.

 

He was instrumental in the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, and helped to draft and manage the National Communications Policy and Strategy that helped pave the way for democratic elections.

 

He joined the Chamber of Mines in 1992, with responsibility for providing strategic insights aimed at transforming the mining industry into the new political dispensation, before establishing Westinghouse Consulting in 1997. The Company served a select group of aviation, financial services and healthcare companies. Chris was retained as spokesperson for the top ten companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange jointly in their High Court and Appeals Court dispute with the SA Government in 1997.

 

He went on to serve as Executive Director of the Southern African Marketing Research Association in 1998, before joining the BoE as General Manager: Group Communications and Marketing. He was a member of its global Strategy Committee.

 

He has served on numerous boards in South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia. As a Board member of Colthurst and Edenland in Dublin he was responsible for global patient and physician education on their anti-retroviral technology. He was also a senior member of the Australian Public Affairs and Policy team at Pfizer, and Pfizer's spokesperson in Australasia.

 

Chris has lived in Sydney since early 2006, having spent the previous 5 years in New Zealand, where he ran a small consultancy and served as Director of Governance for a territorial district authority in the Waikato.

 

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