Articles

Every communications lead who has written for a president, a chancellor, or a CEO knows the particular pressure of it. The words go out under someone else’s name. The voice has to be theirs, not yours. The stakes are visible, the timeline is short, and there is rarely a second chance to land the moment.

Most people picture media training as coaching for soundbites — sit up straight, hold eye contact, stay on message. That is not what it is. Real media training prepares you for the moment a smart, skeptical journalist asks the one question you hoped they would not. How you handle that moment shapes the story, and often the reputation of the institution behind you.

Most leaders assume their voice reaches further than it does. They see their own quotes, remember their own op-eds, and feel busy in the press. What they rarely have is an honest, evidence-based answer to a simple question: measured against the people they consider peers, how much reach and authority does their voice actually command?

Most institutions think about their leader’s web presence as a single object: the bio page. Someone owns it, someone updates it once a year, and the assumption is that this page is where people go to learn who the leader is.

Communications teams are regularly handed a mandate that sounds simple and is not: raise the leader’s profile. The instruction skips a step. You cannot raise what you have not measured, and most institutions have no honest baseline for how their leader’s voice actually lands in the world.

The naming brief almost always arrives as a creative request. Give us something memorable. Something that sounds modern, or trustworthy, or premium. The word people reach for is catchy.

When a platform gets loud, crowded, and full of bad information, the reflex of a serious institution is to stay off it. The reasoning feels sound. The environment is undignified. The signal-to-noise ratio is terrible.

Leading communications, media relations, and reputation strategy for a new graduate research university in Saudi Arabia — working with founding leadership to establish credibility with global academia and attract faculty, students, and research partnerships in a politically complex environment.

Advising sector leadership on strategy, sensitive public relations, and stakeholder engagement for a major new educational and innovation initiative in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Served as secretary to the international steering council in support of senior leadership, engaging a global network of academic and government stakeholders, and supporting faculty in developing stories of impact across education, research, and innovation.

Building the research storytelling function for a specialist artificial intelligence university in the UAE, working directly with the Provost to demonstrate the value of fundamental and applied AI research to national priorities. Cultivated tier-one media relationships to surface research and innovation stories with regional and global reach, and supported senior leadership in hosting high-level events featuring top global academics and regional dignitaries.

Most institutions do not have a communication problem. They have a governance problem.

Scientific discovery has never moved faster. Every day, researchers generate new knowledge that has the potential to improve healthcare, strengthen economies, advance artificial intelligence, address climate challenges, and reshape the way societies live and work.

Every institution wants greater impact. More funding. Stronger partnerships. Better researchers. Better students. A stronger reputation.

Every year, universities and research institutions produce discoveries with the potential to transform industries, improve lives, and shape public policy.

Launching a new institution is an extraordinary opportunity. It is also one of the most demanding communications challenges an organization can face.