Brunswick Group, the strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues, announced today that it has promoted sixteen people to Partner. The sixteen, from nine offices, reflect the strength and depth of the firm’s global talent.
Neal Wolin, Chief Executive Officer of Brunswick said: “These sixteen colleagues represent the very best of Brunswick and we are delighted they will be joining the leadership of the firm. Their continued contributions will be of tremendous value and will mean that we are even better placed to grow and deliver the highest quality work and advice to our clients.”
Louise Charlton, Co-Founder of Brunswick and Co-Chair with Rob Pinker of the Partner Promotion Committee, said: “Each of these individuals has demonstrated our core values through their hard work, client dedication, leadership behaviours and innovative thinking. We are excited to welcome this exceptional group of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to the partnership.”
New Partners
Yue has extensive experience supporting clients during crises and litigation, advising on cross-border M&A, and providing corporate communications, cross-border IPO and investor relations support.
Yue has advised on various transactions which have included Chinese law firm King & Wood’s merger with Australian Mallesons Stephen Jaques, the hotel group Huazhu acquiring Deutsch Hospitalities, a number of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group’s global acquisitions, as well as foreign companies buying assets in China.
Before joining Brunswick in 2006, Yue completed a Ph.D. at Peking University in Beijing, with a focus on international relations, and completed doctoral courses at Waseda University in Tokyo.
Email: [email protected]
Xiaolu has extensive corporate communications experience built on a career that has spanned advisory and multiple in-house roles. Her areas of expertise include corporate reputation, crisis and issue management, and media relations.
Xiaolu started her career at the China Daily where she worked as a journalist and editor for five years before joining Brunswick in 2007.
She has worked on a range of high-profile projects including supporting Fonterra on the Sanlu scandal, Geely’s acquisition of Volvo, and a multi-year reputation building program with Suez Environnement.
Xiaolu has also worked at Hang Seng Bank in Shanghai where she was responsible for corporate communications and was Acting Head of Corporate Communications and CSR, and Samsung Electronics where she led the corporate communications team for the Greater China region.
Xiaolu received an M.A. degree from Annenberg School of Communications, USC.
Email: [email protected]
Antoine Soussaline advises senior executives and corporate communications teams on how to build and defend reputation, influence stakeholders and drive business results.
Antoine started his career in London working for a large network agency and has also worked in the US and Argentina in digital marketing for large technology companies.
With cross-sector experience ranging from aerospace to energy, entertainment and healthcare, Antoine has supported clients in a number of high-profile activism battles, cyber-related crisis situations, and helped senior executives position themselves online.
Email: [email protected]
Elaine advises Chinese and multinational companies on investor relations, financial situations, crisis and corporate reputation.
Elaine joined Brunswick in 2015 and has advised many regional conglomerates and industry leaders such as Swire Pacific, CITIC, Alibaba and Sinopec. She has contributed to high-profile global and regional transactions including the successful listing of Saudi Aramco and Budweiser APAC, Midea’s acquisition of the German robotics maker Kuka, and CITIC/Carlyle’s acquisition of McDonalds China.
Elaine was a former Head of IR and Secretary to the Board at China Sunergy, where she oversaw financing and investor engagement, and facilitated Board activities. Before that she led the finance function at Asiainfo and was a qualified auditor at Deloitte for years. Her industry experience covers energy & resources, financial institutions, consumer and technology. Elaine graduated from Nanjing University with degree in English.
Email: [email protected]
Austin Rathe, New York
Austin is a member of Brunswick’s digital practice, advising clients across a range of sectors to develop effective social and digital communications strategies. During his four years at the firm he has been based in both London and New York and has supported clients in navigating a range of business critical situations including M&A, crisis and employee engagement issues.
Austin has spent his career working at the intersection of communications and technology. Beginning his career as a software engineer, Austin later moved into politics where he became a campaign manager for the Liberal Democrats in the UK. In this role Austin was a senior communications advisor to MPs and Government Ministers in Westminster during the coalition Government, and also led the party’s national digital strategy. During this time Austin pioneered the use of data to target and segment political campaign audiences, including implementing one of the first large scale voter data and microtargeting platforms in Europe. Austin left political campaigning and joined Brunswick in 2016.
Austin holds a degree in Politics, Economics and International Relations from the Open University.
Email: [email protected]
Brendan works with clients to help them address a wide range of issues, with an emphasis on crisis and litigation communications, issues management, and corporate reputation matters. He has experience across a variety of industries and sectors, with particular expertise in the retail, fashion and luxury sectors. Brendan is a key member of Brunswick’s Litigation Communications and Workplace Conduct practice groups, having worked on dozens of high-profile global engagements. During his time at Brunswick, clients have included McKinsey & Company, Burberry, PepsiCo, Ralph Lauren, Kate Spade & Company, and BP.
Brendan began his career as an attorney at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York, where he focused his practice on complex commercial litigation. Brendan graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in finance and received his law degree from Boston University School of Law. He is admitted to the New York bar and speaks Spanish fluently.
Email: [email protected]
Mara brings over 15 years of market research, communications and branding experience across a wide range of sectors.
Before joining Brunswick, Mara was Global Head of Research and Brand Strategy at Las Vegas Sands where she built and led a cohesive international team and served as an internal advisor to global marketing, corporate communications, investor relations, human resources and development.
Mara previously worked for Altria Group. There, she headed the research efforts to support the Marlboro brand strategy and conducted extensive message testing to ensure compliance with newly enacted FDA regulations.
Early in her career, she conducted research while at R&R Partners to support the “What Happens Here Stays Here” advertising campaign. She earned her MBA from the University of Pittsburgh with a concentration in Marketing. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the University of Texas at Arlington Master of Science in Marketing Research Program and the incoming President for the Insights Association Southwest Chapter Board.
Mara joined Brunswick in September 2015 and provides clients with data-driven advice in the areas of corporate reputation, brand and marketing strategy, employee engagement, and narrative development.
Email: [email protected]
Alex has extensive experience advising U.S. and international companies across sectors on financial and corporate communications, issues management, multi-stakeholder campaigns and public and regulatory affairs. He has a particular focus advising on the communications and political aspects of transactions undergoing review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He was previously based in London where he advised clients on financial communications and helped drive Brunswick’s UK public affairs offer. He also served as Chief of Staff to Brunswick CEO, Neal Wolin, from 2018 to 2020 and served as Chief of Staff to Brunswick’s Founder and Chairman, Sir Alan Parker, from 2012 to 2015.
Before joining Brunswick, Alex worked for a political consultancy in Westminster, UK and as a Press Officer for the British Labour Party during the 2010 General Election. He was educated at the London School of Economics and Oxford University.
Email: [email protected]
Timothy has 20 years of in-house and consultancy experience providing strategy, reputation, crisis and stakeholder relations advice to the top leadership of major public and private sector organisations in the UK and South Africa.
His sector experience includes mining, ICT, telecoms, banking, education, professional services, investment promotion and country brand marketing. At Brunswick his clients have included Anglo American, Goldman Sachs, MTN, Lonmin, McKinsey & Company, Barclays Africa, Kumba and Woolworths.
Timothy advises on a wide range of issues from top leadership positioning, financial situations and litigation, through to navigating public affairs and corporate governance failures and responding to serious labour and community conflict crises.
He is the South Africa lead for Brunswick’s Young Leaders in Mining Programme at the annual Mining Indaba in Cape Town. Prior to joining Brunswick, he worked with Brand South Africa, the Chamber of Mines, and Coca-Cola’s 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign.
Email: [email protected]
Julien specializes in M&A, crisis communications and corporate reputation, advising global companies from a wide range of industries.
He joined Brunswick in Paris in 2011 from Oneida Associates, a firm specializing in restructuring operations in Europe. Prior to this, he worked in the Public Relations department of leading French telecom operator Orange. He graduated from Dauphine University in Paris where he specialized in Finance.
Since joining Brunswick, Julien has advised a wide range of clients on sensitive and complex matters, including Moody’s, Siemens, Cisco, Rolls-Royce, SUEZ, SCOR and Silver Lake. From 2014 to 2017, he worked in the San Francisco office of Brunswick, working on profile raising campaigns and corporate reputation issues for clients in the technology sector.
Email: [email protected]
Aideen has broad experience in international corporate and financial communications across sectors, including professional services, technology, health and development. She advises her clients on reputation management, story development, stakeholder engagement and crisis response.
She joined Brunswick in 2007. After studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Christ Church, Oxford University, she trained as a journalist at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She is founder of the Irish Media Network, in partnership with The Embassy of Ireland, London and a trustee of Pause, Creating Space for Change.
Aideen’s clients have included McKinsey & Company, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Novo Nordisk, The Cleveland Clinic and ARM Holdings. Alongside her corporate clients, she has worked with leading institutions, such as the National Theatre and Aintree Racecourse, on their preparedness for high profile moments.
Email: [email protected]
David advises international companies on political and regulatory risk in the UK. He specialises in financial services, covering life insurers, pension funds, asset managers and banks. He also advises companies on Brexit, corporate governance policy and the political debate around competition.
His clients include Prudential, M&G, the Barclays Bank UK Retirement Fund, NatWest Group, Rothesay Life, SWIFT and Aston Martin Lagonda.
His extensive transaction experience includes the proposed merger of Sainsbury’s and Asda; GKN’s response to an unsolicited bid by Melrose; and News Corporation’s acquisition of Wireless Group.
He joined Brunswick from The Spectator magazine, where he worked as a current affairs and politics journalist.
Email: [email protected]
Diana advises global clients on a variety of critical communications issues, including financial transactions, crisis communications, and investor communication.
She has been a core part of Brunswick’s Investor Engagement team and advises European and global clients across multiple sectors, such as financial institutions, industrials and infrastructure, and energy and resources. Some of her clients include Prudential plc, Aston Martin and Weir Group.
Diana joined Brunswick in 2013 from UBS Investment Bank where she was a Director in the leveraged finance and corporate finance teams in London and Hong Kong. She has worked in Brunswick’s Beijing and London offices, advising Chinese and multinational clients on critical communications issues including financial and investor communications relating to IPOs, M&A transactions, and cross border investment and strategic change. She has advised China General Nuclear on its £9bn investment in Hinkley Point in the UK, Pirelli’s listing in Milan, as well as on crisis and shareholder activism situations.
Diana holds an MBA from London Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia. She has worked in China, Hong Kong, and London and speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese.
Email: [email protected]
Fiona specializes in the consumer industries and private equity sectors and has advised clients on major corporate developments that define their reputation. She has worked on some of the highest profile situations in the UK in recent years covering M&A, crises, regulatory investigations, debt restructurings and IPOs.
Her notable clients have included Compass Group, Merlin Entertainments, the Estée Lauder Companies, WH Smith, Pret A Manger, William Hill, Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus.
A former investment banker, Fiona joined Brunswick in 2008, having previously been in the M&A team at UBS, and at Citigate Dewe Rogerson.
Email: [email protected]
Will has over 15 years of experience in the Oil & Gas industry. He joined Brunswick in 2014 where he works in the energy & resources and investor engagement teams.
Since joining Brunswick Will has advised energy companies on complex financial situations, crisis, employee engagement, investor relations and a wide range of critical issues such as the energy transition. His clients have included BG Group, BP, Centrica, Saipem, Saudi Aramco and Wintershall Dea.
Before joining Brunswick, Will spent seven years with Wood Mackenzie as an Analyst covering the European Majors. He also spent three years in-house in the M&A team at GDF SUEZ (now ENGIE) in London.
Email: [email protected]
Ian Roe develops creative communications, campaigns, M&A communications and reputation projects for some of the world’s leading businesses. He leads MerchantCantos’ global sustainability practice and advises companies across financial, technology, consumer and energy sectors.
He has over 15 years’ experience delivering award-winning communications across the US, UK, Europe and Asia. He has advised clients including Alibaba, Bayer, Nike, Naspers, PepsiCo, PwC and the World Bank.
Prior to joining MerchantCantos, Ian had previously worked in corporate responsibility, change consulting and strategic finance at KPMG, Linklaters, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays.
Email: [email protected]
About Brunswick Group
Brunswick Group is a strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues. Our purpose is to help the great value-creating organizations of the world play a more successful role in society. We advise on critical issues at the center of business, politics and society, and help our clients – the leaders of large, complex organizations – understand and navigate these interconnected worlds. Brunswick is one firm globally, operating as a single profit center. This allows us to respond seamlessly and effectively to clients’ needs wherever they are in the world.
Contact
Kate Pope
[email protected]
+44 (0) 746 908 3511