Our Contributors
Ellen Amato is an account supervisor in Fleishman-Hillard’s public affairs practice in St. Louis, where she focuses primarily on strategic research, public policy issues, participatory communications, and grassroots programs. Previously, she was a research specialist in the firm’s research and competitive intelligence group. A graduate of New York University, Ellen has a bachelor’s degree in English and American literature.
Currently based at Fleishman-Hillard Beijing, Dan Baxter is a senior vice president and co-chair of the firm’s sustainability practice, with responsibility for Asia. Over the past 10 years, he has counseled companies, government bodies and NGOs on sustainability and CSR activities. His client relationships have spanned four continents and more than 25 countries. Recent times have also seen him exploring the many interrelationships between sustainability communications, public affairs and corporate reputation, as one of the firm’s senior reputation management advisors. Before joining Fleishman-Hillard, Dan was an entrepreneur, a political aide to several senior Canadian politicians, and special assistant to the chairman of a government-owned corporation.
Amy Bradshaw is a vice president and national media relations expert in Fleishman-Hillard’s St. Louis office, where she manages public relations programs for clients in the global transportation and technology industries. Her interest in corporate sustainability and passion for environmental issues stems from her prior communications and development work with The Nature Conservancy, an international non-profit conservation organization. Amy holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism.
Teresa Calvano is vice president, associate director in Fleishman-Hillard’s Brussels office and co-chair of the firm’s global Sustainability practice group. In Brussels, Teresa heads the IT portfolio and specializes in technology, telecoms and media policy. A former assistant to a member of the European Parliament, her career has focused on public affairs, conducting successful lobbying campaigns and devising profile-raising activities for companies.
Jamie Carracher is a Washington, D.C.-based communications professional. Jamie first developed a passion for social responsibility and sustainability as a reporter writing about online recycling communities and teens teaming up to protect local waterways. Today, he is a senior account executive at Fleishman-Hillard and a member of the Sustainability practice group. His work focuses on technology, telecommunications, healthcare and public affairs.
Jeff Davis is a senior marcom manager in Fleishman-Hillard’s St. Louis headquarters and a leader in the firm’s word of mouth marketing practice. Jeff has developed campaigns for leading brands including AT&T, Boston Market, Budweiser, Dell, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Papa John’s. In the sustainability arena, he developed the global awareness campaign for Amphibian Ark, a nonprofit organization that coordinates the rescue of endangered amphibian species. Jeff continues to write Amphibian Ark’s blog, frogmatters.wordpress.com.
Caterina Geremei is a senior account manager in Fleishman-Hillard’s environment team in Brussels, providing government relations expertise and services to corporate and trade association clients on issues related to European Union environment, energy, and transport policy. Caterina has expertise in range of service areas including issues management and advocacy campaigns, and has a keen interest in corporate social responsibility. In particular, she is an expert in EU policies related to sustainability and climate change. Caterina obtained her degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Trieste. She also holds a masters degree in European Administrative and Political Studies from the College of Europe, Bruges.
Jerry Hereden is a managing supervisor at Fleishman-Hillard Houston. During his career, Jerry has coordinated public affairs and communications efforts for several major energy companies. With more than 15 years of experience, Jerry has an extensive background in public affairs strategy, issues management, media relations, crisis communications, reputation management, branding, government relations and influencing key stakeholders. His energy sector experience includes natural gas exploration and production, refining, marketing, transportation, chemicals, alternative energy, trading, LNG, electric utilities, interstate natural gas pipelines and assisting distributed power generation clients.
Debra Hotaling is a partner with Fleishman-Hillard in Los Angeles where she works with clients to realize their business objectives through communications. With a special focus on renewable energy and water-related issues, Debra’s work is informed by having grown up in the Southwest where resources and business continue to inspire both innovation and conflict. She serves as global co-chair of FH’s sustainability practice.
A member of Fleishman-Hillard’s corporate team in London, Sophie Hughes specializes in corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues. Sophie has extensive experience of developing company programs and CSR reports, implementing communication strategies and issues management for a range of industry sectors, including food and drink, FMCG, energy and professional services. As part of her previous role with parent company Omnicom, she also has experience managing sustainability issues with broader stakeholder audiences through public affairs and branding campaigns.
Bobby Jones is a public relations professional based in St. Louis. Bobby’s work has allowed him to learn a little about a lot of the evolving world of sustainability, from alternative fuel technologies to corporate sustainability practices to nature conservancy. He is especially interested in the way new media facilitates the sustainability movement.
Silvio Marcacci is a vice President in Fleishman-Hillard’s Washington, D.C. office. He joined the firm in 2006, and focuses on the intersection of issues in the energy and environment, sustainability and public affairs spectrums. Silvio specializes in developing community affairs, internal communications, media relations, social media and online communications, and corporate social responsibility campaigns for clients in the fields of energy, environmental advocacy, infrastructure and commodities. He has also worked on several county and statewide political campaigns in New Jersey, including two gubernatorial elections, and possesses several years of hands-on experience within state and county government.
Katie North is a San Diego-based public relations professional who specializes in travel/tourism, B-to-C communications and food industries, with an overarching focus in media relations. She is an account executive at Fleishman-Hillard and a local graduate of San Diego State University.
Sophie Pim is an account director in the public affairs team in Fleishman-Hillard’s London. Prior to joining the firm, she cut her political teeth with six years working in London and Brussels for the Conservative Party, most recently in the private office of the Conservative Party leader, David Cameron. Sophie has long been interested in the environment and sustainability issues, and is looking forward to blogging about CSR issues in the political arena, particularly in the run-up to next year’s general election in the UK.
David Turier is part of the Brussels office’s environment team, working on EU regulatory advocacy campaigns as well as broader communications for a wide variety of sectors, including chemicals, transport and energy. David has always been interested in CSR and was part of the original team that spearheaded the “FH goes green” initiative, which ultimately led to Fleishman-Hillard Europe becoming carbon neutral.
Becky Vollmer is a senior communications strategist at Fleishman-Hillard’s global headquarters in St. Louis, where she has counseled clients across a broad spectrum of industries, including energy, transportation, healthcare, telecommunications and technology. For the last several years, she has been fortunate to integrate her personal passion for sustainability with a business specialty of helping clients develop and communicate meaningful corporate social responsibility platforms, sustainable business initiatives and environmental stewardship programs. A veteran of newspaper journalism and political campaigns, she is a senior vice president in the firm’s corporate issues group and a co-chair of its global sustainability practice.
Harriet Wood is an account executive with Fleishman‑Hillard in Brussels. She works for a variety of clients in the transport, environment and security sectors – providing public affairs, strategic communications and digital communications/social media support. Harriet is also responsible for tracking and reporting on developments of the European Union institutions, in particular on transport- and environment-related issues. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in classics from the University of Bristol and her masters in European studies from the University of Birmingham.