[Watch] Exec Connect Live Panel: Using Data to Deepen Reputational Impact

Amid this reputation data revolution, there are key players who are already wielding cutting–edge technology, broad data sets and intuitive metrics to make decisions that enhance corporate reputation.

Moderated by David Benigson, CEO of leading External Intelligence company Signal AI, this panel of pioneering practitioners including Dan Simon, Chairman and Co-Founder of Vested, Benjamin Thiele-Long, Director and Executive and Business Communications at Petco, Deirdre Latour, Former Chief Communications Officer at GE and former President at Edelman  and other leading CCOs will discuss:

• The key pillars of data in Communications

• How Reputation has grown to be a lever for business performance

• How comms leaders can approach a fractured landscape and the cross-winds of policy, politics, and instability

• Tangible stories of how measurement evolution deepened reputational impact

• The power of measuring reputation across and within industries

Speakers: Benjamin Thiele-Long Director, Director of Executive and Business Communications at Petco, Dan Simon, Chairman and Co-Founder of Vested, and Deirdre Latour, Former Chief Communications Officer at GE and former President at Edelman

Benjamin is the Director of Executive and Business communications at Petco, the first appointee to that role since the company went public via IPO in January 2021. In addition to presentation, public speaking and media training, he has 15 years’ experience in corporate, financial, and business communications strategy in addition to issues, crisis and reputation management. To date, he has led media for more than 50 international mergers and acquisitions; both publicly listed and privately held companies. He has media trained over 150 different CEOs, Founders, Board Members and SVPS of some of the world’s biggest banks, tech companies, and FMCG brands.

Benjamin was previously Managing Director and SVP of Financial Communications at Ketchum, advising some of America’s largest retail and consumer-facing brands. Prior to Ketchum he was the Head of West Coast for Cognito, where he led the North America PR function. Benjamin started his career in law, working for almost a decade as a Barrister in the UK specializing in prosecution and defense of serious crime and white-collar crime, regulatory law, and financial regulation, enforcement and compliance. Since leaving the bar in 2014, Benjamin has worked on communications programs across corporate and consumer public relations, proactive marketing, thought leadership campaigns, and reputation and issues management in the UK, EMEA, U.S., and Asia. Benjamin holds a double major in Neuroscience and Law from Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of Law.

Dan Simon is a writer and senior communications specialist with 20 years’ experience in PR, Marketing & Advertising. Dan has led campaigns for some of the biggest global brands, including Bloomberg LP, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of Qwoted, a technology company connecting the media to experts and brands across industries. Dan is a regular columnist for Forbes, Markets Media and CoinTelegraph and he co-chairs the Museum of American Finance Communications Advisory Board. His book, The Money Hacker (HarperCollins 2020), was named best Small Business Book by the Axiom Awards.

Deirdre Latour is a communications strategist and reputation expert that has counseled the c-suite as an in-house communications leader and as an advisor in the agency world.  Most recently, Latour was the Chief Communications Officer and a member of the executive team at Madison Square Garden Entertainment and Sports. Prior to that, she was the President of the New York Office of Edelman, the world’s largest communications firm.  In her role as President, Latour led a team of 800 employees and had responsibility for client counsel and the management of the office’s financial performance.   Before Edelman, she was the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and a member of the executive team at the FTSE 100 company Pearson, the world’s learning content company.  Her role included global oversight of investor relations, government relations, sustainability, media relations, research and insights, employee engagement, brand and marketing.

From 2004 – 2018, Latour worked at GE where she rose to be the Senior Advisor to the CEO and Chief Communications Officer and served on the company’s management team.  In that role, she was responsible for the company’s communications function globally, including financial communications, public relations, Ecomagination (sustainability), public affairs, talent development and helping to shape the company’s strategy and culture.  During her tenure, she played a major role in influencing stakeholder perception as the company managed a variety of transformative developments including a CEO succession.  Among other accomplishments, she helped to drive the evolution of GE’s image from a legacy industrial manufacturing and financial services conglomerate to a focused digital company through media, thought leadership, events and executive positioning.

Latour started her communications career in the agency world at Porter Novelli and Edelman where she worked on a variety of consumer clients including Kellogg’s, Acuvue Contact Lenses, Warner Bros. consumer products and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

She lives in New York City with her husband Rich and their three sons Dylan, Connor and Finn.