You can count on ...
... extensive experience in dealing with corporate reputation and communication issues, having worked extensively alongside C-level executives and teams of multi-national corporations.
Johan Van Laer
Senior Advisor in strategic and sensitive communication - Trainer
Johan is a respected advisor to business leaders and policymakers. He helps them with strategy in sensitive communication, media and stakeholder relations and change processes. Training to develop and deliver messages correctly is part of his activities.
He spent 20 years at Burson Marsteller and Burson, Cohne & Wolf, a renowned global communications consultancy in public affairs and public relations, where he was responsible for the Belgian market. Together with his team, he supported companies and public authorities with their communication campaigns, media relations and contacts with stakeholders. He did this for global companies such as Accenture, Mc Cain, Henkel, Orangina Schweppes, SCA, Benteler,... but also worked closely with Total Energies in crisis preparation and relations with local authorities. Recently he supported 3M Global and 3M Zwijndrecht in Belgium on PFAS issues.
Earlier in his career, Johan was Marketing Communications Lead EMEA at INTEL and Head of Communications Europe for ETAP Lighting. He was a journalist at VRT Radio 1 and spokesperson for the Brussels Region in the context of major infrastructure works. He also worked as a communications consultant for Mc-Cann Erickson and Ogilvy PR on corporate communications and employer branding projects and was a communications consultant for the European Commission on TACIS projects in Russia, specifically the introduction of personal income tax.
Johan is Belgian, has a master's degree in linguistics from KU Leuven and speaks fluent Dutch, French, English and Russian.
Bruno Fierens
Advisor in strategic and sensitive communication- trainer
Bruno is an experienced communication professional and Belgian native. He specialises in strategic positioning, messaging, media training and sensitive communication.
During a first spell at BCW (formerly Burson-Marsteller) from 2010 to 2015, he focused on corporate communications for Belgian clients, working on a wide array of topics (clients included Henkel, 3M, Accenture, Uber, Sony Mobile and Marine Harvest). As many clients work across BCW offices internationally, he often cooperated and coordinated with other markets. His second BCW-period, from 2018 to 2020, focused more on European lobbying campaigns.
In between his stints at BCW he worked as a spokesperson for Recupel, an organisation focused on the collection and recycling of electronic waste, where he initiated and developed an external communications strategy from scratch (messaging, media plan, PR tools) and implemented it (interviews, events, stakeholder outreach).
Bruno studied political science at the University of Leuven and political communication at the University of Alabama. He speaks French, Dutch and English fluently, and has basic knowledge of German and Belgian Francophone Sign Language.