The Partners
We are all senior advisors with a long experience of working together. Our ability to work effectively together is rooted in a culture that has grown organically, nurtured by personal interaction and mutual respect and affection. This unique chemistry, a bonding based on complementarity of character, knowledge and skills, underpins the Senior Consultancy partnership approach.
We have deliberately adopted an open, flexible structure, designed to ensure clients can access as much or as little of the partnership as suits their needs. It is also that other partners will join in time.
Ulf Bauer
Ulf Bauer has professional experience of 30 years, with focus on corporate communications, government relations and sustainability.
He worked in a diverse range of leadership roles on national (Germany) and international (Brussels & London) level in the public and private sectors. He gained his track record from a variety of sectors including military, politics, logistics & services, fast moving consumer goods and mining & metals.
Ulf started his career with the Federal Armed Forces of Germany as a mountain infantry officer which included a University Diploma in Business Administration and History as well as a NATO/IFOR mission as military spokesman to Bosnia/Hercegovina in 1996.
From 1997 to 1999 he worked in the Federal President of Germany, Prof. Dr. Roman Herzog’s office as spokesman in Bonn and Berlin.
For the following 20 years he worked with international blue chip companies from both the German DAX and MDAX indexes as well as from the British FTSE 100.
Following a 7-year period in corporate and CEO communications with the Deutsche Post DHL Group, he joined BAT plc for 10 years covering corporate communications, government relations and sustainability including as Member of the BAT Executive Board Germany and Head of the Group’s Corporate EU Representation in Brussels before moving to BAT HQ in London to cover global regulatory engagement and campaigning.
In his last role he was employed as Vice President Corporate Communications, External Affairs & Sustainability and Member of the Extended Board with the German MDAX Group Aurubis AG, a leading metals and copper producer and the world’s biggest copper recycler, a driving force metal’s circular economy.
Ulf Bauer initiated and drove business change communications, led industry cooperation in business associations from national to global level and was engaged on several boards of national and international Foundations as well as Public Relations institutions.
Ulf Bauer: +49 1522 6858815
ulf.bauer@seniorstrategists.com
Mag.a Olga Brisker
Olga Brisker, Partner at Senior Strategists, has thirty years of experience in the areas of strategy, communication, crisis communication, marketing, digital media, reporting, human resources and training as well as employee representation.
Born in Vienna, Brisker went to school at the Academic Elite Grammar School and received her Master of Social and Economic Sciences (MSocEcSc) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. During her studies she worked as an accountant, managed a tennis school and the media for the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
Immediately after graduating, she joined the large, international Austrian oil and gas company OMV. At headquarters, she held various management positions, ranging from personnel development and training, coordination of environmental protection, management of the strategy and marketing department, digital media to e-business and corporate communications, including reports and crisis communication. Most recently, she was Chairman of the Works Council of the AG.
In between, Brisker used her political experience for a period in the cabinet of the Austrian Federal Minister of Science and Transport. There she was responsible for sensitive issues such as strategic marketing, telecommunications and the controversial Semmering Tunnel.
Olga Brisker: +43 676 3926248
olga.brisker@seniorstrategists.com
Dr Alexander Dubowy
Alexander Dubowy has more than ten years of successful experience in research and consulting in political relations and security matters.
He works in an interdisciplinary manner on international security policy and is the author of strategic studies, regional studies and analyses of international relations with a focus on Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS area.
Furthermore, Dubowy is engaged in political consulting, policy analysis, stakeholder networking, using trend, actor and stakeholder analyses and strategic scenario development as a basis.
Born in Semipalatinsk (in today's Kazakhstan), Dubowy grew up in Estonia and Austria. The Doctor of Jurisprudence studied law, economics and political science in Vienna and Moscow.
In addition to many years of research and teaching activities at national and international research and educational institutions such as Moscow State Lomonossov University, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), the University of Vienna, the Vienna National Defence Academy and the Theresian Military Academy, he established research foci on Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS area at the University of Vienna and at a cooperation institute of the Austrian Ministry of Defence.
Dubowy is excellently networked in the global expert community as well as in national and international think tanks, research and educational institutions. These include: Carnegie Moscow Center; Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC); Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SVOP); Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund; Georgetown University; Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University; Caucasus Institute.
Alexander Dubowy: +43 676 9317907
alexander.dubowy@seniorstrategists.com
Andrew Garfield
A seasoned financial and corporate adviser with a strong track record of looking after global companies at a senior level, Andrew has successfully developed a boutique advisory business, Garfield Advisory, offering personal attention and a global perspective primarily to international businesses. He is able to draw on more than 15 years a partner at Brunswick Group, a leading global communications agency where he advised financial institutions such as Barclays, HSBC, BNP Paribas, the Moscow Stock Exchange, HKEX and Euronext among many others, and international businesses such as Unilever, Bertelsmann, Israel Corporation, and GDF Suez (now Engie).
Since establishing Garfield Advisory as an independent consultancy in 2016, he has advised some 30 clients, some of them very high profile, on a range of issues including significant M&A transactions, activist situations, cyber, sanctions breaches, key employee misconduct and regulatory investigations.
He also represented a number of high net worth individuals active in global business and philanthropy.
Andrew graduated from Oxford University with an MA in Modern Languages. He speaks, reads and writes French, Russian, Hebrew and when pushed, German, and has a track record of operating successfully across multiple linguistic, cultural, legal and political environments.
Thanks to a career which has taken him to most of the world’s leading global financial centres, he can readily access a top-tier global network spanning the worlds of media, politics and business.
Andrew entered corporate communications after a successful 16-year career in journalism where he held positions such as the Financial Editor of The Independent, the European Business Editor of the Evening Standard, the Brussels Correspondent of The Scotsman and the City Editor of the Scotland on Sunday newspapers.
For further information go to www.garfieldadvisory.com or Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-garfield-97797a13/ or email Andrew Garfield at andrew@garfieldadvisory.com.
Andrew Garfield: +44 7974 982337
andrew.garfield@seniorstrategists.com
Andrew Goldberg
Andrew is a partner with Senior Strategists, and chairs their US partner consultancy Metropolis Group 360. He operates three practice areas: Organizational Transformation and Change Communications; CEO Engagement Advisory; and Financial and Corporate Relations and Stakeholder Communications.
He has guided clients in many sectors and all sizes, from seed-backed ventures to global enterprises, through some of their most complex strategic life cycle and organizational change events. His organizational transformation work includes image positioning for C-level executives and designing and implementing organizational improvement programs that enhance leadership foresight, agility and trust. In his corporate financial advisory works, he focuses on optimizing investor narratives, reappraising business and stakeholder models, realigning leadership and governance processes, and go-to-market strategies.
His experience includes the full spectrum of challenges facing business leaders and boards in an era of dynamic change. These include corporate re-organizations, management transitions and senior leadership succession, IPOs, M&A, restructurings, leadership transitions and crises associated with litigation, regulatory issues. He has also assisted his clients in management programs that facilitate adaptation to digital innovation, changing business processes and the integration of new and changing environmental, social, and governance practices.
Prior to his work with Metropolis and Senior Strategists, he served as Chief Strategy Officer of mLogica Space, a satellite manufacturing company focused on providing space-based big data processing and laser communication; CEO of Pivot Red, a Burson-Marsteller company that focused on analytics based communications; Chairman of Burson-Marsteller’s global financial practice; and CEO of AGG/Prism, a firm with practices in corporate transformation, financial communications, and crisis and litigation, which he founded and sold to the WPP Group.
He also led the Science and Technology practice at The Center for Strategic and International Studies, held Senior Fellowships at MIT’s Center for International Affairs and the Brookings Institution, and was an analyst at The Rand Corporation.
A passionate believer in socially transformative technologies, he has worked with companies that focus on AI, electric vehicles and electric aircraft, satellite-based internet and data processing and the utilization of IOT in financial services and manufacturing.
Dr. Goldberg holds a PhD from Columbia University.
andrew@metropolisgroup360.com
Christophe Lachnitt
Christophe Lachnitt is an independent consultant. He specializes in optimizing the strategy, operating model and performance of communications organizations in the context of digital transformation. He helps his customers optimize the value of their communications operations and adapt their operating model to address the increasing complexity of balancing audience fragmentation and brand development. During his corporate career, Christophe Lachnitt managed large communications and marketing organizations in fast-paced, highly challenging environments. He served as company spokesperson during Alcatel’s strategy crisis and worst-ever share price plunge, and was then instrumental in positioning the Company as the world leader in Internet networks during and after the dot-com bubble. He led the planning, execution and tracking of Microsoft’s $100 million marketing strategy in France and the turnaround of Microsoft’s image in the country when it was the worst in the world. He revamped Naval Group’s internal communications to facilitate the Company’s transformation and created a corporate social responsibility program for which it received an award from the French Senate. He was a member of executive committees of multibillion-dollar businesses for thirteen years and worked with high-profile CEOs.
In 2014-2015, Christophe Lachnitt had to put his career on hold for a year and a half. He underwent a spinal bone-graft surgery resulting from a near-fatal rock-climbing accident. He was bedridden for a year and then spent six months in an in-patient rehabilitation center. He learned the value of physical and emotional resilience. Once back on his feet, Christophe reinvented his professional life and founded Croisens, a high-touch boutique consultancy firm. He helps communications leaders direct their own disruption from business value assessment to change management and adoption. His customer references include Bayer, Bouygues Construction, CNP Assurances, EDF, GBH, Ingenico Group, Mutuelle Générale, Société Générale, Somfy, Sonepar, Thales, UIMM, and Worldline. Christophe Lachnitt is the author of four books – three on the digital revolution and one on the management of fear by professional climbers. He is the founder and editor of the Superception blog (3,000+ articles published to date), newsletter and podcast on all things perception. He is a TEDx speaker and a guest lecturer at top business schools HEC Paris and Sciences Po Paris.
Christophe Lachnitt: +33 6 48 26 03 79
Dr Rainer Ohler
Initiator of Senior Strategists, Rainer Ohler has been an international manager and communicator for more than twenty years. His focus is on strategy and optimization of stakeholder relations, especially in large projects, crises and reputation issues.
Ohler was born in Bonn and served for more than two years in the German Armed Forces and the NATO HQs in Belgium. He then studied law and political science in Würzburg and Münster with a scholarship from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. He obtained his doctorate in law in 1991.
After his law degrees he started his career in the German parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) and later served in the Federal Chancellery under Chancellor Kohl. In 1995 he moved to Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) in Munich as senior manager in the general secretary's office and assistant to the CEO Manfred Bischoff. In 1998 he was promoted to Vice President Media Relations first at Dasa and later continued in the same function at EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company) in Munich. In 2006, he was appointed Senior Vice President Public Affairs & Communications at Airbus in Toulouse and as a Member of the Supervisory Board of Airbus Deutschland. Ohler was responsible for political affairs, company security, environmental affairs and communications. In 2012, Tom Enders appointed him as EVP Communications at EADS. In this role corporate governance, crisis communications as well as the integration of the company and its brands and the communications function were his main tasks. The group-wide change to the single brand Airbus was largely in his hands.
Rainer Ohler: +49 172 489 0353
rainer.ohler@seniorstrategists.com
Tim Orr
Tim Orr is a Brand and Communications Strategist, who specialises in developing a complete brand approach for companies and organisations and putting in-place comprehensive cross-platform communications to embed and grow the brand.
Tim has been in brand and communications for over 25 years, holding senior roles in many large international companies including GEC-Marconi, Pilkington Optronics, Thales and latterly was Head of Brand for Airbus. He now works as a branding and communications specialist consultant.
Tim was born Northern Ireland and attended schools in both Belfast and Scotland. Tim graduated from Dundee University with a Master’s Degree in Arts and Social Sciences, majoring in geography, politics, economics and philosophy. From university he served a short service commission in the Royal Navy reaching the rank of Lieutenant.
On leaving the navy, Tim briefly worked as an operations manager, but soon moved into communications.
Through his 25 years of professional branding and communications, Tim has gained extensive experience and skills in brand management, advertising, exhibitions, events, media relations and crisis management, gained in the aerospace, defence, technology, service and transport sectors. All of Tim’s roles have been working at an international level and running large multi-national teams.
Developing brands and re-positioning are Tim’s passions, giving companies and organisations the right external and internal brand approach that makes all their stakeholders really believe in their organisations purpose - bringing tangible, measurable results.
Tim Orr: +44 7767220964
tim.orr@seniorstrategists.com