Team Tantalus – Management and Communications Consultant Group

John Schweizer | Senior Consultant | Paris, France

John has 30 years of experience working at the intersection of communications, information technology and team leadership in North America and Europe. For the past 15 years, he has held global operations and change management roles in Paris, France at Microsoft and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, where he served as an evangelist for integrating technology tools to build modern communications teams. Prior to this, he was a writer on information technology, food and drink, and venture capital for The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research arm of The Economist Group. Before moving to France, John spent the majority of his career California, where he was the chief of staff for the honorable Jackie Speier, who currently serves as a representative for California’s 14th congressional district. He also had a long career at Pacific Bell, California’s telecommunications utility, where he last served as director of consumer affairs, focused on public policy, government relations, executive speechwriting and crisis communications. John has a BA in History from Pomona College in Claremont, California and studied History at University College in Oxford. He speaks English and French.

Read John’s insights on how organizations can benefit from creating and implementing collaboration management tools.

David Woodruff | Senior Consultant | Basel, Switzerland

David has nearly four decades of experience in senior communications and media roles in the United States and Europe. He has been a trusted advisor to leaders in several multinational organizations and harnessed powerful storytelling to build reputation, shape public opinion and motivate people. David had communications leadership roles at Royal Dutch Shell, Novartis and the Organization for Co-operation and Economic Development. He is an experienced speechwriter and multimedia storyteller, and recently completed a multi-year project to create a life sciences museum in Basel, Switzerland. He is also an experienced communications skills trainer, coach and mentor. David began his career as a journalist and was a staff correspondent for BusinessWeek magazine and the Wall Street Journal. He was also a senior editor of the McKinsey Quarterly management magazine. David enjoys cycling, hiking and skiing and is an enthusiastic amateur photographer. He speaks English, German and French and lives near Basel with his wife and two teenage children.

Serge Giacomo | Senior Consultant | Paris, France

Serge Giacomo is a renowned figure in international Corporate Communications, Brand Management, and CSR with a focus on Diversity & Inclusiveness, with a career spanning over three decades. His professional journey includes significant roles and contributions in global brand management and CSR. Throughout his career, Serge has held prominent positions in various multinational corporations such as ADNOC in Abu Dhabi, WPO Group in Paris, GE Latin America in São Paulo, Vale S.A. in Rio de Janeiro, and Shell International in Paris and The Hague. He has also worked as a senior consultant for international offices of Edelman PR Worldwide and Burson-Marsteller (now BCW). Born in São Paulo, Serge holds dual citizenship from France and Brazil and is fluent in several languages. He holds degrees in French Language and Literature from the University of Paris-Sorbonne and in Social Communications/Public Relations from the University of São Paulo. Further enhancing his expertise, he is an alumnus of senior executive programs at IMD in Switzerland and the MIT Sloan School of Management in the USA.

Aliya Mohamed | Senior Consultant | Vancouver, Canada

Aliya is a Communication, Public Affairs and Marketing professional with nearly 20 years of experience. She spent a decade in Canada’s highest public sector office, the Office of the prime Minister, where she led former Prime Minister Harper’s Tour and operations. More recently she has led External Affairs in Canada for Amazon’s North America Public Policy team and External Communications and Public Affairs at the fastest growing urban transit organization in North America, Metro Vancouver’s TransLink. Aliya studied in Ottawa, earning a B.A. in Political Science and Global Affairs from the University of Ottawa, and has a Master’s in Business Administration from the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Aliya was a recipient of British Columbia’s Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 award in 2021.

David Estok | Senior Fellow | Toronto, Canada

David Estok was the Vice-President, Communications for the University of Toronto. He oversaw a team of marketing and communications professionals in digital media, brand marketing, media relations and communications. David has years of experience working in a collaborative manner in complex organizations in both the private and public sectors. Prior to joining U of T, David was Vice-President, Communications for SickKids Hospital Foundation for five years. During that time, the Foundation was recognized for numerous awards in marketing and communications including a Silver Lion at Cannes for the “Better Tomorrow” campaign. David was the Editor in Chief of The Hamilton Spectator, a large city newspaper for almost four years. Under his leadership the newspaper was nominated for 11 National Newspaper Awards, two Michener awards, and was named best large-scale media organization in Canada. David is also the former Associate Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs for The University of Western Ontario and has worked as a writer and senior editor for a number of publications including Macleans Magazine and The Financial Post. David holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from Carleton University and an Honours BA in English and History from The University of Western Ontario.

John Bailey | Senior Consultant | Singapore & Switzerland

John Bailey has spent more than 25 years helping companies around the world to prepare for, and respond to, reputation challenges and crises. He is the author of the Best Practice Guidelines on Crisis Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age. He has been involved in the response to numerous crisis situations, including several airline accidents and the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. More recently, he was part of the team advising the senior management of Malaysia Airlines on their response to the disappearance of flight MH370, a crisis unprecedented in aviation history. John offers an unrivaled breadth of international experience, having worked with more than 100 clients in over 50 countries, in manufacturing, logistics, FMCG, financial services and international sports governance. Before he became an associate of the Tantalus Group, John built the largest independently-owned PR agency in Singapore, which was acquired by Ketchum. When not working as a management and communications consultant John is a regular speaker at conferences around the world, and has been a guest lecturer at the Singapore Management University, National University of Singapore, the Singapore Institute of Management and the Singapore Aviation Academy.

Lech Mintowt-Czyz | Senior Consultant | London, UK

Lech Mintowt-Czyz is a thought leadership strategist and speechwriter for CEOs, senior executives and other prominent figures. Leaders turn to Lech when the words need to be exactly right and when the moment really matters. Despite his Polish name, Lech is London-born and has been a writer his entire career. He started as a news reporter, covering everything from Harry Potter premieres to political scandals and terrorist attacks. He met people at the most extreme moments of their lives and helped them tell their stories. Lech then worked as a news editor for nine years at The Times (of London) in both print and digital formats. After more than 20 years in newspapers, Lech joined Shell as speechwriter to the CEO. Together they won five Cicero awards in three years, an unprecedented haul. More recently he has written for the CEO of ADNOC and the President of the UN’s COP28 climate conference.

Read Lech’s Secrets to Success in Thought Leadership.

Alex Sévigny | Senior Consultant | Canada

Tenured associate professor of communications management in the Department of Communication Studies & Media Arts at McMaster University. I work at the intersection of data science, artificial intelligence, communications, management, marketing, politics and culture. My work is informed by behavioural and cognitive science. In my research, I develop communications metrics and experiment with natural language processing applied to strategic communications and marketing research. I also work a lot in artificial intelligence. I am a huge optimist about professional communications and marketing. I also am a strong believer that we must adapt to new technologies and learn to use data. Our society is changing, which means professional communication must change and adapt to new realities. That means building relationships, brand, image and trust at scale, using data-driven strategy and new technologies such as data science, artificial intelligence and augmented reality. I view public relations as a powerful force in business, government and culture. I think we are at our best when we serve our clients and the public interest.

Hanadi El Sayyed | Senior Consultant | Dubai, UAE

Hanadi El Sayyed has over 15 years’ experience in the Human Resources industry and looks to broaden executive mindset to rethink how to better design and deliver employee services that exceed the expectations of the workforce and the needs of the business. She is dedicated to raising the potential of HR leadership in MENA region as they strive to innovate their organization’s digital workforce experience. She served as the Head of Human Capital at Majid Al Futtaim Holding, where she was responsible for the delivery of the Company’s human capital groundbreaking vision and strategy at the Holding company. Hanadi took on the role following a fulfilling HR leadership career journey with Majid Al Futtaim where she drove strategies and ensured the realization of organizational people vision through the implementation of future driven, fit for purpose HR practices. Hanadi graduated from the American University of Beirut with two Bachelor of Science Degrees and completed her Masters’ Degree in Development from the University of London. She carries certificates in strategic HR management, design thinking, and people leadership from world-class academic institutions. Hanadi writes about the future of work, digital transformation of HR, and employee experience. She is a contributing writer with various international digital HR editorials such as TLNT and myHRfuture.

Bert Regeer | Senior Consultant | The Hague, EU

As one of Tantalus’ most senior management consultants, Bert has more than 25 years of hands-on and leadership experience. He is the former Vice-President of Communications for Royal Dutch Shell, leading strategy development and reputation plan implementation with a clear focus to build business value. Bert has extensive experience in change management, including business needs, organizational design, leadership culture, staff competencies, efficient work processes, team behaviors as well as managing the transition. He’s also a trusted advisor of senior management in a range of companies.

Read Bert’s article on stakeholder engagement as part of a strategic communications plan.

Liam Fitzpatrick | Senior Consultant | London, UK

Liam FitzPatrick, whose 25 years of experience with change, PR and internal communication comes from working in-house and in consultancy. Liam has worked in civil engineering, energy, manufacturing and transportation as well as telecoms.  He was Global Head of Internal Communication at Marconi during its financial restructuring and has worked on change and transformation projects in a wide variety of situations. He is particularly interested in developing teams, research and planning and is Vice Chair of the IABC’s Global Communication Certification Council. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.  Liam was the co-founder of the Black Belt series of training for internal communicators and co-wrote the definitive model of competencies for internal communicators. Outside work, he’s a bit obsessive about cycling!

Kevin Hasler | Senior Consultant | Wales, UK

Kevin Hasler is a highly experienced communications consultant with 25 years-experience of living and working in international markets in the Middle East and Europe. A former newspaper journalist in his native UK, he has since managed PR businesses in seven countries including running the largest PR agency in Hungary and businesses in Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and the Sultanate of Oman. A media training and media engagement specialist, he has delivered training to C-suite executives and Government Ministers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Serbia and Slovenia among others. His client experience includes delivering senior advisory support for leading global companies across sectors that includes aviation, banking, healthcare, manufacturing, tourism, the first ever Papal visit to the Gulf Region and the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. A lifelong love of training extends to team and in-house development and University lectures and he is also a highly experienced event moderator and host. He has interviewed global authors on stage at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature for the past six years, hosted global virtual boardrooms and moderated live events at EXPO 2020 for the Italian Government.

Read Kevin’s whitepaper on Media Relations.

Ben Murphy | Senior Consultant | Vancouver, Canada

Ben Murphy is a senior communications, branding, media relations, and issues management consultant, having worked with global clients in the United Kingdom, Canada, United Arab Emirates, and Australia. He is the Director of Communications for TransLink British Columbia, Metro Vancouver’s transit and transportation agency. Previously he was a Senior Reporter and Presenter for 7NEWS Australia, winning several awards, including a Clarion for Best TV News Report (Antoniolli Arrest) and Best Broadcast Interview (Hanson Sex Shop). Ben also served as the Queensland Editor for Sky News Australia. In this role he managed Sky News’ Queensland bureaus, reporters, and liaisons, in addition to reporting within the state. Ben has served as a Media, Communications and Political Adviser to two Australian cabinet ministers; the nation’s Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment. In these roles, he would provide advice directly to the ministers and their elected colleagues on communication and political strategies to be used during media interviews, parliamentary proceedings, and crisis situations. Additionally, Ben has anchored news bulletins for commercial radio stations and convened a university course which taught the fundamentals of Broadcast Journalism. He holds a Master of Communication from Griffith University and a Bachelor of International Relations from Bond University.

George Liu | Senior Consultant | Seattle, USA

George Liu is an expert in brand positioning, strategy, activation and protection, as well as integrated marketing communications and crisis management, in the digital age. He has unique experience in voice of customer (VOC) management and social customer care. George has worked as a journalist, with global agencies and multinational companies, as start-up and Asian companies. He has had broad exposure to the B2B, B2C, C2B and P2P environment and is a naturally curious, creative and entrepreneurial consultant. Cross-cultural or international opportunities, partnerships and business co-creation projects are particular areas of strength. Before joining the Tantalus Group, George was the Chief Marketing Officer at Hong Kong Airlines, which he helped transform from a regional carrier to a budding global brand in just two years. Prior to that, George spent 12 years with the Boeing Company, helping the aviation giant crack the China market, as well as its airline customers expand globally.

Read George’s take on the US – China Trade War

Heron Hanuman | Senior Consultant | Victoria, Canada

Heron Hanuman specializes in impactful brand narratives and strategic content creation. With over 30 years in broadcast media and digital communications, including roles at CTV, CBC, and as a Digital Communications Manager for the Government of British Columbia, Heron is known for crafting stories that resonate across cultures and industries. He has a proven track record in transforming complex ideas into accessible, engaging visual content tailored to diverse audiences. Heron’s expertise spans executive and brand narratives, interactive case studies, and data-driven storytelling, making him an ideal partner for multinational corporations looking to build authentic connections with stakeholders. Heron brings strategic insight and creative vision to help Tantalus clients drive engagement and communicate with impact worldwide.

Charlotte Stichter | Senior Consultant | New York, USA

Charlotte Stichter is a strategic thought leader with a creative mind and track record of putting ideas into practice while assessing the results. Charlotte quickly develops a deep understanding of behaviors, translates priorities of business and integrates organizational values and strategies to meet the client’s needs. With a background in counseling and sport psychology, Charlotte has been recognized as an executive coach within many fast paced global organizations as a dynamic and a go-to person for personal development, team management and identifying how to best integrate generations within the organization. Charlotte is an avid equestrian, born and raised in Sweden. She has a global mindset and deep understanding of culture and people which she successfully partner with relevant functions to develop and execute people strategies.

Read Charlotte’s thoughts on executive coaching and access her default behavior and personal brand training exercise.

Dick Wright | Senior Consultant | Hong Kong, SAR P.R.C.

Dick has been working out of Hong Kong and across the Asia Pacific for over 24 years. During that time, he has worked in agency with Hill & Knowlton and in-house with Lucent Technologies, Alcatel and BT Global Services. During these years he developed a two-pronged expertise of crisis issues management and media skills training, alongside a Telecommunications technology focus working as a part of Asia Pacific and global teams. He has extensive experience in ‘real’ crisis comms situations.  These include extensive redundancy communications, hands-on crisis situations including FCPA and labour issue work in China and employee issues in Guatemala with US owners and Chinese contractors. He has also built four day training programs with hundreds of participants, across multiple cities. He was a registered Lobbyist in Ottawa for the Government Business Consulting Group where he focused on big pharma patent protection, open skies between Canada/US and procurement issues in expanding private business opportunities in the government procurement process. Dick has an MBA from Kellogg/HKUST, a degree in Asian Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, English & Economics. He speaks English, some French and basic Cantonese.

Read Dick’s take on Restructuring Communications.

Trevor Jurgens | Senior Consultant | Vancouver, Canada

Trevor is an expert in brand storytelling for a socially networked world. He has helped organizations including the Olympic Games and Port of Vancouver develop policies to adapt and thrive in the era of social media. An educator and motivator, Trevor expedites the evolution of executives and organizations into effective digital communicators that benefit from stakeholder amplification. With a flare for strategic creativity and innovation he is a pioneer in the field of Socialgenics – creating experiences and content that prompt social sharing. Prior to working as a management and communications consultant Trevor has been a journalist for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) specializing in trend-spotting and pop-culture. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary. He speaks English, French and Spanish and has worked in digital media in North America, Central America, Asia and Australia.

Learn the importance of social listening and including executive thought leadership as part of your digital communications programs.

Brett Cooper | Senior Consultant | Melbourne, Australia

Brett possesses a wealth of experience in assisting organizations and teams enhance their communication, public affairs, leadership, and strategic capability. He brings extensive experience in communicating with senior business leaders, political figures, media professionals, and employees.
His career expands across various functions including public affairs, communications, sales & marketing, people & culture, and general management in Australia, Switzerland, the European Union, the UK, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Asia Pacific.
Throughout his career, Brett effectively led and steered organizations through transformative phases and periods of change, even in the face of substantial external challenges, all while consistently achieving strong business performance and positive results.
He has a proven history of tackling intricate challenges, constructing productive and effective teams, and achieving favorable business outcomes.

Learn how to Elevate Your Public Affairs and Communications for Success

Sanj de Silva | Senior Consultant | Adelaide, Australia

Angela has more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications, public affairs, brand and marketing. She is a specialist in crisis communications with industry experience in banking, finance and tobacco.  Her expertise in stakeholder mapping and communication strategies has helped major corporations through challenging government disputes. For example, Angela helped a tobacco giant achieve its business objectives by lobbying for practical regulatory outcomes. She also led a major bank’s communications and marketing team through unprecedented changes to its workforce, the digitization of services and a consolidation of its business.  Angela started her career as a journalist and was an on-air personality for a leading news channel during the civil conflict in Sri Lanka.

Adam Greenberg | Senior Consultant | Sunshine Coast, Canada

Adam is an experienced sales leader at the enterprise level. He specializes in direct sales of cloud-based, SaaS and HCM Solutions Sales and account management. He regularly coaches and trains mid-level sales leaders around the world. Specialties: Leadership, Hunting/Prospecting, Rainmaker, Challenger, Closer, Deal-Maker, Solution-Selling, Boardroom Presence, Team-Building, Employee engagement, Government Contracts, Branding, Presentations and Communications, Leveraging Social Media to maximize exposure and Public Speaking. Adam helps companies improve execution, increase engagement and drive performance leading to superior business results through a collaborative approach and performance management.

Read Adam’s article on the sales process and access your copy of his proven prospecting tool.