The right messaging: Dealing with reputational risk in an age of disruption

John Russell is the Managing Director China of Sandpiper-North Head, a strategic communications and public affairs consultancy, focusing on East and South Asia. He has 16 years' experience in China advising multinational and domestic companies and governments.

Before North Head, he had a regional role across Asia at Weber Shandwick and prior to that was based in Europe as CEO of Weber Shandwick’s Brussels operations and head of public affairs across Europe. For almost 10 years he was executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union.

John started his career in the military, with postings in the UK, Germany, Singapore & Malaysia and the Middle East (Egypt & Israel), in addition to his native Australia.

Simon is an accomplished strategic communicator, researcher and campaigner with 20 years’ experience working in Europe, Australia and China. Working out of Ogilvy’s Beijing office, Simon leads the development of Ogilvy’s global issues and crisis credentials and best practice. He provides counsel to senior leaders on their external and organizational communications needs.

In China, he provides strategic leadership on key accounts including Shiseido, Jaguar Land Rover, British Airways, Qantas, KPMG, Johnson & Johnson, Huawei, Tetra Pak, Colgate, Ford, and the Paulson Institute as well as government clients.

Simon has devised and delivered communications campaigns for C-suite leaders across a range of sectors including healthcare, technology and communications, resources and aviation as well as senior politicians and leaders in the not-for-profit sector.

Before joining Ogilvy PR’s Beijing office, Simon was Director of Parker & Partners, Ogilvy PR’s public affairs consultancy in Australia.

Simon established Ogilvy Illumination, a strategic communications research practice providing research consultancy services to support Ogilvy PR’s clients.

Simon is a strong believer in evidence-driven communication strategies and his work has informed the strategic direction of a number of blue chip companies, as well as leading players in the government and non-profit sectors.

At Parker & Partners, Simon led many national issues and public affairs campaigns in the resources, sustainability, climate change and public health sectors. Simon is an experienced social marketer and has delivered opinion-shifting campaigns for governments on climate change and water, for the Industry Super Funds movement and on political campaigns at state and federal elections in Australia.

Simon has an Honors Degree from Oxford University in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

Xiaoni works at Brunswick Group in Beijing. She advises clients on corporate reputation management, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, issues and crisis management and media engagement. Her clients have included multi-national corporations, Chinese state-owned enterprises and private businesses.



Xiaoni joined Brunswick in 2014 from Shell where she served as official spokesperson for Shell in China. Prior to working in-house, Xiaoni worked in media during which she served as a senior producer at CNN and director of programming at Sun TV, in addition to working as a reporter for multiple Chinese national media outlets earlier in her career.



In her time in journalism she covered a variety of major international as well as China stories and had her work recognized with awards including a News & Documentary Emmy Award and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.

Alfredo is responsible for overseeing The Economist Intelligence Corporate Network in Beijing. Based in China since 2013, he has focused on analysing the business implications of policy, economic and political developments for companies investing and operating in China, and in the broader Asian region. This with the aim of distilling complex issues and conveying clear takeaways on how to capture business opportunities and respond to emerging challenges.

Before joining The Economist Corporate Network, Alfredo was Associate Director for KPMG's Global China Practice, where he led and contributed to numerous thought leadership projects, including flagship reports, customised business briefings, and policy proposals for Chinese authorities. He also played a large role in events programming and outreach, including leading the design and coordination of high-profile events aimed at senior executives. Prior to that, Alfredo worked for J Capital Research, Eurasia Group and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Alfredo has a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) from Georgetown University, and a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Mexico's Center of Research and Teaching in Economics (aka. CIDE).