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International association for the measurement and evaluation of communication
I am a digital humanist and public relations consultant. My work in recent years has been mostly focused the future of PR, gendered views of PR, (digital) storytelling, and public relations insight, evaluation and measurement, and CSR. More recently, I have returned to looking at automation and AI in PR/Comms, driven by the rapid developments of generative AI.
I am currently based in Berlin. I spend most of my time at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences where I am leading the MA Communication & Leadership program and teach as Professor of Public Relations/Corporate Communications. (In the past I have co-lead the MBA Communication, Public Affairs Leadership program as well as the International MBA Communication & Leadership). In 2022, I was appointed Vice President of the university.
Prior to Berlin, I have held lecturing and research posts in the UK, Belgium and Bahrain.
I also take on consultancy and training projects every once in a while, still focusing on sustainability/CSR, storytelling, measurement and evaluation in PR/Comms, and AI.
For over 17 years, I have been leading Escherman, a digital communications consultancy that helps marketing and PR professionals develop and execute effective marketing programmes. I’ve consulted with or trained employees from over 3000 organisations, including government departments, NGOs, and global brands, on topics such as AI (artificial intelligence), digital PR, analytics, SEO, and social media. As a CIPR Fellow and Chair of the AI in PR panel, I’m passionate about exploring the impact and opportunities of artificial intelligence for public relations and the wider business community. I’ve co-authored two books on the changes taking place in the media and its professions, and contributed a chapter on AI and automation for Platinum, a book showcasing excellence in public relations. I also hold Google Partner status and the Google Analytics and Adwords certifications, as well as the Advertising on LinkedIn certification. I’m committed to sharing my knowledge and experience with others through various training, consulting and speaking engagements.
As Managing Director of Medianet, Amrita leads the business’s strategic vision, operations, and commercial performance for Australia and New Zealand’s leading media intelligence, PR and communications solutions provider. With over 18 years of experience, she’s a recognised leader in media, technology and digital services, having previously held senior executive roles at Tigerspike (GM Asia), VMG (Global Head of Commercial and Partnerships) and Australian Associated Press (Group Sales & Marketing Director). Amrita is a driving force behind Medianet’s integration of AI and automation solutions and a proud Board Member of AMEC. Amrita is passionate and energetic and her leadership is defined by her authentic, collaborative approach to creating value for clients, partners, and colleagues.
Anna leads Onclusive’s global Data & Insights function, driving the AMEC award-winning insights strategy across earned and social media. She has experience of reputation, campaign and crisis tracking for corporate and public sector clients. Anna lives in Surrey, has three teenagers and a dog and chairs her village choir.
For 14 years Ant worked in tech and/or comms for the UK Government including Media Relations roles for the Ministry of Defence in Iraq and Afghanistan and later in the Middle East during the ‘Social Media Revolutions’ of the Arab Spring. In 2014 Ant started working in AI, eventually becoming the CEO of misinformation focused startup, Factmata, leading it to acquisition by Cision in 2022. In May this year Ant joined Meltwater as VP of Product for AI and Data. Ant is an accredited PR practitioner, named in PR Week’s ‘Dashboard 25’ in 2023 and ‘Dashboard AI 25’ in 2024.
Catherine Arrow is a global public relations consultant, educator and director of PR Knowledge Hub. Life Member and Fellow of PRINZ, Fellow of CIPR, Fellow of ASEAN PR and a founding Chartered Public Relations Practitioner, she is currently Global Public Relations Practitioner of the Year. With more than three decades’ international experience, Catherine’s work spans strategy, governance, ethics, measurement and evaluation and she is a pioneer in model development and deployment of AI in PR. She champions affordable, accessible and equitable professional development worldwide.
Cien Solon is a London-based tech founder helping everyday people turn AI into income. She combines deep technical fluency with a mission to demystify AI and empower teams. Her platform, LaunchLemonade (described as the “Canva of AI agents”) lets any business scale with smart assistants without writing code or hiring developers.
Christofer Solheim is a Norwegian entrepreneur, inventor and angel investor whose career spans AI, machine learning, and strategic communication. He co-founded Commetric, the media-analytics firm, and serves as its Non-Executive Chairman and largest shareholder, advising its strategic and technological development. His investment track record covers early-stage ventures in predictive modelling, communications services, and deep technology, while his earlier roles included leadership in digital communications and project modelling.
Darryl is Co-Founder of Hard Numbers, PR Moment’s B2B Agency of the Year. Hard Numbers marries killer creative with commercial acumen, creating campaigns that drive demonstrable return on investment. Darryl spent much of his career in sales, running this function for Precise (now Onclusive). He ran the London office of a Search Engine Marketing agency, and then joined Hotwire as a board director of its UK business. Darryl is a Fellow of the PRCA and CIPR and is a CIPR Chartered Practitioner and member of AMEC, but his most important job is that of father to his children, Hudson and Halia.
Debbie is the founder and CEO of award-winning B2B PR agency With, now 100% employee owned. Debbie spearheaded With’s AI adoption with Stephen Waddington over an intense 6 month programme built around a core governance framework and cross discipline integration. Debbie is an NED for other marketing services businesses as well as an angel investor into women-founded businesses. Debbie leads the With Women programme of free media training for women leaders which has trained over 1000 women.
Josh Blyskal leads AI Strategy at Profound, defining how Fortune 500 brands secure visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI systems. As a founding team member at Profound, his frameworks guide Ramp, Indeed, US Bank, and other category leaders through the shift to AI search. He cofounded HubSpot’s Marketing AI practice, where he built the AI Search Grader and pioneered model-driven automations that reshaped enterprise marketing. Josh speaks at BrightonSEO and advises global brands, turning emerging AI search patterns into competitive advantages for companies that recognize the stakes before their competition does.
Kate LaVail is the Segment General Manager for PR, Communications, Media, and Government for LexisNexis, developing the next generation of communications insights solutions through the world’s largest, fully licensed data suite. Kate previously led Ketchum’s Research and Analytics team for North America, McDonald’s Inc.’s Performance and Intelligence team, and the CDC’s Health Communication Research team for the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, as well as the National Emergency Operation Center, following her time in print, radio, and digital media. She is the Professional Advisor to the Crisis Communication Think Tank’s Research Group and a proud AMEC member. She holds a MA from University of Iowa and PhD from the University at Buffalo.
Kelly is an author, educator and business leader who started her career at Cars.com and AOL back when people still said, “You’ve Got Mail!” without irony. In 2003, she launched her first digital marketing agency and later sold it in 2014. A vacation to the Kona Coast in Hawaii gave her the idea (and the name) for her current company, Kona Company, a digital strategy firm that helps clients untangle marketing and technology problems while hopefully avoiding too many buzzwords.
Kelly has been teaching at Northwestern University for nearly 10 years across Medill, Kellogg, McCormick, and SPS. Before that, she served as an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University in Chicago. Her courses cover digital marketing, visual communication, and the ever-shifting future of marketing. Whether in the classroom, on Zoom, or on a conference stage, she’s happiest when she’s talking about marketing with students and professionals — or really anyone at all. At Medill’s Spiegel Research Center, she spends her time researching generative AI and emerging technology (and trying to convince people that robots are more helpful than scary…most of the time). She also wrote her first book, Search Marketing: A Strategic Approach to SEO and SEM, which you can totally find on Amazon if you’re into that kind of thing.
When she’s not optimizing websites, she’s usually traveling with her family, dabbling in yoga, or finding ways to turn everyday life — from coffee runs to airline delays — into a marketing lesson.
Martin Schulze is Head of Insights (SVP) at UNICEPTA, part of Stagwell’s Marketing Cloud, where he leads the company’s Analytics & Insights division and drives global efforts to fuse cutting-edge AI with strategic media intelligence. With over a decade of experience advising leading brands and institutions, he helps organizations build proactive, insight-driven strategies that anticipate change, shape decision-making, and strengthen reputation. At the forefront of integrating AI, narrative analytics, and GenAI-driven reputation optimization, Martin champions a new way of thinking – one where AI is not merely a tool but an influential stakeholder that actively shapes narratives and redefines how companies communicate and compete.
With 15+ years at the leading edge of strategic communications measurement, Maya Koleva is one of Europe’s foremost voices in integrating AI into comms evaluation practice. Maya’s approach is rooted in analytical rigor: she holds a PhD from Sofia University in entity-centric content analysis and network analysis. In her role, Maya is pushing the boundaries of how AI and generative tools can support methodologically sound, reliable and replicable research and evaluation methods. She oversees the integration of natural language processing, machine learning pipelines, and generative AI into research methods and workflows, coaching teams and clients on responsible automation and oversight.
Michal Jahns is the founder and managing director of Readwiser, a media intelligence company helping media monitoring firms, social listening platforms, PR agencies, and brands make sense of their media data.
With a background in linguistics and sociology, Michal combines an understanding of language and society with a passion for inclusive leadership and creative problem-solving. He started his career 15 years ago at Precise (now Onclusive) and has since focused on building tools and teams that bring clarity to complex media landscapes.
Outside of work, Michal enjoys being part of intentional communities, dancing fusion, playing tennis, and spending his holidays the mountains.
Michael brings 15 years of experience fusing higher-level conceptual analysis with granular evidence-based decision making within the communications space. While the industry’s shift toward data-driven planning and measurement was inevitable, fundamental challenges persist, both within communications and in the broader ecosystem it influences. Michael specialises in architecting solutions to these systemic challenges, reimagining what communications can achieve when freed from traditional constraints. As Senior Director at Burson and product owner of The Fount, Michael has built a platform that breaks down traditional data silos, creating unified intelligence systems that enable predictive insights, campaign optimisation, and the structural foundations for advanced AI applications.
His work sits at the intersection of strategic communications, data science, and cultural insights, building the frameworks that will define how industries understand and shape influence and reputation in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.
Nicola Johns is Principal Product Manager at LexisNexis, where she helps shape the development of Nexis+ AI and other advanced data and analytics tools designed for PR and media professionals. With over 20 years of experience spanning law, product strategy, and content innovation, she drives the creation of ethical, sustainable, and AI-powered solutions that enhance insight generation and decision-making. Nicola holds postgraduate certifications in Business Sustainability Management from the University of Cambridge and Sustainability Leadership and Corporate Responsibility from London Business School. A passionate advocate for responsible AI and technology ethics, she focuses on aligning innovation with transparency, trust, and long-term value for communicators and organizations worldwide.
Raina Lazarova is the VP of Insights at Muck Rack & Chair of the AMEC Board of Directors, helping PR & Communications professionals demonstrate the value of their work through data-driven media insights, and an outcome-based approach to media measurement and evaluation. With over 15 years of experience in media intelligence, Raina has been recognised as a respected professional and thought leader, focusing on promoting value-based media measurement in communication and highlighting the importance of humanity, compassion and attention to customer experience in B2B. Raina is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of AMEC (the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) and is frequently invited as a speaker at conferences, webinars and masterclasses
Sanchary Pal is a Researcher with deep experience converting complex behavioral data into actionable strategies. At Northwestern University’s Medill–Spiegel Research Center, she conducts surveys, multivariate modeling, and qualitative research to connect academic rigor with industry impact. Previously, she led research and analytics initiatives for product and CX teams (including Tech Fleet’s K-Block and Porter), designing and analyzing usability studies, customer journeys, surveys, A/B tests, and syndicated market research. Her toolkit includes R/SPSS, SQL, Tableau, and advanced survey/experimental methods (SEM, ANOVA, regressions). Sanchary’s work has supported large client and stakeholder portfolios across marketing technology, consumer goods, and healthcare. She holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Communication (University of Miami) and an M.A. in Advertising & Public Relations (DePaul University) and has been recognized with a Top Ethics Paper Award (2020) and a university dissertation award (2023).
Stephen is a professional advisor at Wadds Inc. and a PhD researcher at Leeds Business School, supporting agencies and in house teams on a range of management, corporate communications, and public relations issues, including AI. He co-founded Socially Mobile, a social enterprise that delivers management training to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and underrepresented and underserved groups. He has written and edited more than ten books, including Exploring Public Relations and Management Communication, as well as the upcoming book AI for Public Relations.
Dr. Thomas Netousek is the visionary CEO of eMedia Monitor and a passionate innovator at the forefront of speech-to-text technology. Thomas is dedicated to pushing boundaries and enhancing the user experience. As the driving force behind one of the world’s leading broadcast monitoring companies, he strives to offer cutting-edge AI-based solutions for clients and partners alike. Thomas’ expertise lies in creating technologically advanced media intelligence solutions, making broadcast information more accessible and usable. His relentless pursuit of excellence has made him a pioneer in the industry, where he continues to shape the future of communications technology and to set new standards.
Yolina combines the heart of Cultural Studies with the brains of Cognitive Science. Currently, she is Chief Operations & AI Officer at Identrics and teaches Statistics at NBU. Her interests focus on improving our understanding of the trust dynamics between humans and artificially intelligent systems, and whether it should be facilitated (if yes, how) to improve the production of socially beneficial and responsible AI. She also has a strong research interest in Cognitive Modeling, particularly in modeling cognitive abilities considered distinctive for humans.