Global Alliance AGM elects new Board 2021
Global Alliance President Justin Green is re-elected for a second two-year term
Lisbon, Portugal, May 3 2021 - The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management 19th Annual General Meeting was held on Sunday 2nd May remotely due to Covid-19 restrictions regarding travel and public gathering. A candle was lit by the Secretary of the AGM Paula Portugal Mendes in solidarity with all those who have lost their lives globally to Covid-19, to pay a special AGM tribute of our frontline workers, the real heroes of our health services, care workers, scientists and indeed to acknowledge our own profession’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global Alliance President Justin Green presented the 2020 Annual Report, which provided an overview of the key activities and initiatives conducted by the Global Alliance in 2020. Membership currently stands at 78. Despite the impact Covid-19 had on the activities and finances of global organizations, the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management remained strong and offered significant programming and member value in 2020. Increased financial stability was achieved during 2020, with total assets up 46% on 2019. This included partnership funding by global partners Banco Santander and Edelman. New Regional offices opened in Jakarta Indonesia (Asia), New York USA (North America), and Nairobi Kenya (Africa) along with our existing head office in Lisbon Portugal (Europe).
Highlights and achievements in the past year included the launch of the Global Alliance Public Relations and Communications Model in partnership with Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership, with a holistic view to making it a durable, sustainable and global consensus-based expression of what is the future of communications and intangible assets management.
For the first time Global Alliance held monthly campaigns to strengthen the importance of the following themes: Education & Training, Diversity & Inclusion, Health & Wellbeing and Ethics & Standards. These campaigns engaged thousands of communicators who created and shared content supporting and endorsing it concentrated in specific months along the year.
In 2020, Global Alliance hosted and shared over €1m euro worth of educational, training and resources free of charge, to help support members and the profession during COVID-19. An Academic Council has been appointed to among other activities review and evaluate Public Relations and Communication programs that are applying to our Global Accreditation and Certification endorsements.
We continued to strengthen our commitment to the rollout of the Global Alliance Capability Alliance Framework developed in partnership with University of Huddersfield, UK, ensuring continued free access for all members.
The AGM approved all proposed changes to the Bylaws. These changes have met with widespread global support, allowing the organisation to become stronger, richer and true to our mission.
The newly elected board of directors who will commence their appointments 1 July 2021 were elected by the AGM. Global Alliance´s President, Justin Green from Public Relations Institute of Ireland, has been re-elected for a second two-year term. Silvia Arto from COM-ENT (France) has been elected Vice President. With 60% (13) female and 40% (8) male directors membership, Global Alliance´s new board has an excellent gender representation.
The incoming board includes leading professionals, academics, training and industry association leaders with representation from every continent. Global Alliance is a global, diverse and multicultural organisation representing professionals across all religions, cultures, societies and races. The incoming members are listed and marked in bold below:
Global Alliance Executive Board 2021 - 2022
President: Justin Green, PRII - Public Relations Institute of Ireland (Ireland) - June 30, 2023
Immediate Past-Chair: José Manuel Velasco, Dircom - Spanish Communication Directors (Spain) - June 30, 2023
Vice President: Silvia Arto, COM-ENT - Communication & Entreprise (France) - June 30, 2023
Secretary: Fiona Cassidy, PRINZ - Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (New Zealand) - June 30, 2023
Treasurer: Philip T. Bonaventura, PRSA - Public Relations Society of America (USA) - June 30, 2022
Delegate-at-Large Representing National Association:
Hamilton dos Santos, ABERJE - Brazilian Association for Business Communication (Brazil) - June 30, 2023
Paula Portugal Mendes, APCE - Portuguese Association of Corporate Communications (Portugal) - June 30, 2023
Jaffri Amin Osman - IPRM - Institute Public Relations Malaysia (Malaysia)- June 30, 2023
Yin Xiaodong, PRGC - Public Relations Global Communication (China) - June 30, 2022
Delegate-at-Large Representing Any Membership Categories:
Peter Mutie - Peterson Integrated Communication Institute (Kenya) - June 30, 2023
Amith Prabhu, The Promise Foundation (India) - June 30, 2022
Delegate-at-Large Representing Academic/ Research:
Ángel Alloza, Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership (Spain) - June 30, 2023
Dr. Amybel Sánchez de Walther, USMP – San Martin de Porres University (Peru) - June 30, 2022
Regional Delegate-at-Large:
Bonnie Caver - IABC- International Association of Business Communicators (USA) - June 30, 2022
Gladys Díaz - Puerto Rico Public Relations Professionals Association (Puerto Rico) - June 30, 2022
Béatrice Guay - Canadian Public Relations Society (Canada) - June 30, 2022
Kia Haring – Procom - Finnish Association of Communication Professionals (Finland) - June 30, 2022
Gonca Karakaş - Tuhid - Turkish Public Relations Association (Turkey) - June 30, 2022
Patience Nyange - PRSK - Public Relations Society of Kenya (Kenya) - June 30, 2022
Mandy Pearse - CIPR - Chartered Institute of Public Relations (UK) - June 30, 2022
Ana Pista - PRSP - Public Relations Society of the Philippines (Philippines) - June 30, 2022
The President thanked outgoing board members for their huge contribution made to Global Alliance: Prita Kemal Gani from ASEAN Public Relations Network (Indonesia), Sarah Hanel from Canadian Public Relations Society (Canada), Alastair McCapra from Chartered Institute of Public Relations (UK), Wilfred Marube from Public Relations Society of Kenya (Kenya) and Dr. Rotimi Oladele from Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (Nigeria).
“Despite Covid difficulties, Global Alliance rose to the challenge, quickly and efficiently re-arranging many of our scheduled events and services while at the same time devising and implementing an impressive array of alternative programmes to serve our members as best we could in a rapidly changing scenario. Virtually overnight, we had to restructure the organisation, revise many of our operations and services and reach out to members by providing enhanced benefits, support and services. Working together, we devised a Professional Roadmap to chart a path of recovery and reassurance into the future” said Justin Green, President Global Alliance.