James W. Harff
Chairman and CEO - Global Communicators

Jim Harff, Chief Executive Officer, is a co-founder of Global Communicators and Chairman of its parent company, Harff Communications Incorporated. Previously, as President of the Global Public Affairs division of Ruder Finn for eight years, Mr. Harff directed a team of international public relations and communications professionals from headquarters in Washington, D.C. Mr. Harff's professional work has specialized in government relations, lobbying, public policy issues management, foreign government representation, international economic development, media relations, crisis communications, and travel and tourism promotion. For eight years he was a Chief of Staff to three Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Katherine M. Christie
President - Global Communicators

A former journalist and long-time public relations professional, President Katherine Christie has had an extensive career in fields ranging from politics and private industry to federal government service. As senior press officer at the National Endowment for the Arts, Ms. Christie was responsible for publicizing programs and projects to make the best of the American arts available to the widest audience. As a Washington-based news reporter and columnist, Ms. Christie covered the White House, Congress and government agencies. A co-founder of Global Communicators, Ms. Christie was a Vice President of Edelman Worldwide.

Kristine E. Heine
Executive Vice President - Global Communicators

Executive Vice President Kristine Heine has more than 25 years of experience in the communications profession, working with U.S. and international businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government entities. Ms. Heine began her career as a television and radio reporter, producer, and anchor in her native Iowa before coming to Washington, D.C., as a Press Secretary to a U.S. Representative. As Director of Public Liaison for the U.S. Agency for International Development, Ms. Heine developed and managed programs to educate the public about U.S. foreign and humanitarian assistance. She has been Vice President of Grey and Company public relations, and Senior Vice President of Edelman Worldwide.

Jennifer Heuer
Media Relations - Global Communicators

Jennifer Heuer brings media, nonprofit and international experience to Global Communicators, along with the perspective of the 18-24 year-old youth market. Ms. Heuer earned a degree in Marketing and Information Systems from Syracuse University in 2006. In addition to participating in a foreign study program in London, she has traveled throughout Europe and Indonesia. Ms. Heuer served as the director of a Central New York community outreach program, and during her college summer breaks in 2004 and 2005 she worked as a Global Communicators project assistant on media relations. She joined the firm in June 2006 as an assistant account executive.

Ivan Butina
European Business Development Analyst

With an academic background in international relations, Ivan Butina, heads Global Communicators’ European practice area. Mr. Butina obtained a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he specialized in International Economics and European Studies. Mr. Butina interned with the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), where he strengthened his knowledge of EU-US economic relations and the functioning of U.S. government and government-business relations. Previously, he worked for the European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he developed a youth communications strategy to actively involve young people in their country’s EU integration process. Mr. Butina was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was raised in Bologna, Italy. He is fluent in English, Italian and Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian, and he speaks French and German.

Mabruk Kabir
Emerging Markets Analyst

Mabruk Kabir joined the Global Communicators team after obtaining his International Business degree from McGill University. Previously, Mr. Kabir had interned at the Nepali Embassy in Washington, where he had researched US Trade Policy with regards to South Asia and Africa. Passionate about development, he has also interned at the Society for International Development (SID-Washington), as well as the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and Helen Keller International in Nepal. With a strong interest in the dynamics of globalization and emerging economies, Mr. Kabir contributes knowledge and experience of developing areas to Global Communicators. Mr. Kabir is of Bangadeshi origin, but has lived in a number of cities, including Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kolkata, Delhi, Canberra, New York and Montreal.

Jerry La Pointe
Managing Director
Global Communicators West Los Angeles, California

With three decades of experience in travel and tourism promotion, high tech strategic planning, special events production and communications marketing, Jerry La Pointe is one of America's most accomplished communications consultants. As head of Global Communicators' West Coast operations, Mr. La Pointe is also President of Spectrum Consultants, Los Angeles. Since 1985, the firm has served more than 300 clients in the entertainment, tourism, hospitality and high tech industries. Mr. La Pointe taught graduate and undergraduate business communications as a Professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business Management in Los Angeles. He is fluent in French and Spanish.

Michiko M. Morales
Senior International Adviser (Tokyo, Japan) – Global Communicators

Senior Vice President Michiko Morales brings a decade of public relations and marketing experience in the United States and Japan to Global Communicators. An international public relations strategist, Ms. Morales has managed public relations campaigns for technology, consumer product, business consulting, defense contracting, and financial services clients. Prior to Global Communicators, she was vice president of Stanton Communications and supervised accounts that covered business process outsourcing, technology, defense contracting and consumer product industries. She held a number of public relations positions, including senior counselor and director of the Washington office of The Martin Agency/SLAY Public Relations. She is fluent in Japanese and has served numerous Japanese clients.

Patrick Davis
Senior Adviser

Patrick T. Davis is chief executive officer of Patrick Davis Partners, the consulting firm he founded in 1996. With his leadership, the firm has become a trusted advisor to senior executives nationwide and is known for achieving clarity on the complex positioning issues that drive brands, markets and media. Mr. Davis has led the growth of Patrick Davis Partners from its inception, and today manages the firm’s network of offices in Atlanta, Napa Valley, and St. Louis. He serves as a senior advisor to Global Communicators on brand strategy and positioning assignments. Patrick Davis Partners works with a wide range of national leaders in airlines, beverages, consumer products, entertainment, food, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, real estate and retail, among others.

Kiku Obata
Graphic Designer

Kiku Obata founded St. Louis-based Kiku Obata & Company in 1977. The firm is committed to effectively creating identities, places and ideas for clients by successfully integrating graphic design, architecture, environmental graphic design, interiors and lighting design. Ms. Obata is an adviser to Global Communicators on graphic design strategy and creation of graphic applications including corporate logos.

Luis Soto
Business Consultant

Luis Soto, a lawyer and business consultant, provides advice and counsel to Global Communicators’ investment promotion clients. Mr. Soto’s professional experience over more than a decade has focused on economic development, including investment and trade promotion, competitive analysis, public and private management, personnel supervision, media relations, and negotiations. A native of Venezuela, Mr. Soto was executive director of CONAPRI, the Venezuelan Investment Promotion Agency, from 1995 to 2001. He is now an independent consultant based in Orlando, Florida. His clients have included Bolivia, Venezuela, Guyana, Turkey and the Andean Community. Mr. Soto received his law degree from Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Venezuela and his MBA from the Venezuelan Graduate Management School.

James A. Crandall
Media Relations, Investment Promotion,
Global Technology Issues

With 25 years of public relations experience, Jim Crandall offers Global Communicators’ clients extensive international media contacts, strategic media planning, product promotion, and expertise on technology issues worldwide. Mr. Crandall has worked with Fortune 500 corporations as well as top-ten international public relations agencies and organizations in the energy, high technology, telecommunications and pharmaceutical sectors. His marketing and publicity assignments have covered 25 countries. He is President of Crandall Communications, Inc., based in Washington, DC. Mr. Crandall holds a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University.

Steve Drake
Media Adviser

Steve Drake offers Global Communicators more than 25 years of experience developing and leading strategic, global communications programs for some of the world’s most recognizable and influential organizations. During his career, Mr. Drake has worked with major public relations firms and corporations on communications, public affairs and marketing programs in a range of sectors, including education, technology, consumer products, retail, financial services, and government. He offers special expertise in China-related programs, having launched and managed offices in Beijing and Shanghai as a Senior Vice President and Partner with Fleishman-Hillard International Communications in the mid to late 1990s. Mr. Drake is principal of Steven Drake Associates, LLC, a corporate communications and global business consulting firm based outside of Washington, DC. He holds a bachelor and master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, where he serves as an adjunct professor with the Department of Communications.

Paul Brandus
Media Adviser

Paul Brandus is a Strategic Partner and Media Adviser with Global Communicators, LLC. He is also owner and chief executive officer of Montrose Group, LLC, a Washington-based communications and marketing firm he founded in 2007. Montrose Group helps companies and organizations communicate effectively with clients, shareholders, employees and the media. Over a career spanning two decades, Mr. Brandus has worked in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, on Capitol Hill as a U.S. Senate staffer, Wall Street as the manager of shareholder communications for an investment firm, in network news as a producer for NBC and CNBC, and as a public relations executive, counseling Fortune 500 companies and foreign governments on a variety of strategic communications matters. Mr. Brandus also has extensive experience as a working journalist. As a Moscow-based correspondent for NBC Radio and the award-winning business and economics program "Marketplace," he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War. He has also reported from Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and as a transportation and business reporter for Washington, DC’s WTOP Radio, the top-ranked all-news station in the United States.

Thomas F. Calcagni
Media Coaching, Media Relations, Crisis Communications

Tom Calcagni has more than 25 years of experience as a broadcaster, senior communications executive, spokesperson and media coach. He founded Calcagni Media Coaching and is the author of Tough Questions – Good Answers: Taking Control of Any Interview. Mr. Calcagni began his career as a political reporter on television. He also served as communications director for two U.S. Senators, was the senior-most public relations executive at the nation’s largest association, AAA, and worked at public relations firms in Washington, DC and Seattle. Mr. Calcagni is a veteran of many national media interviews and has testified before Congress.

N’PR Communications Consultancy Co.
Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey

Based on Global Communicators’ long-term interest in Turkey and Turkish Cyprus, we have formed a strategic partnership with N’PR, a communications management agency with offices in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey. Founded in 1992 N’PR is one of the few communications companies holding the ISO 9001-2000 Total Quality Management System certificate. The agency shares with Global Communicators an abiding commitment to the highest professional standards and ethics. N’PR worked with Global Communicators in directing media publicity for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Our Advertising Agency Partner

August, Lang & Husak, Global Communicators’ strategic advertising agency partner, is a full-service firm that shares a similar corporate culture and our commitment to excellence in communications. Launched in 1992, AL&H is based in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. Mike August, director of client services, has had a prolific career in front-line positions with Washington’s most successful advertising agencies.  Bill Lang, a strategic leader in marketing, media, public relations and promotional tactics, is an active volunteer in the public service arena.  Chuck Husak, creative director, is a strategic thinker at home in the studio, marketing meeting, or client’s office. He is a winner of advertising’s highest awards.  Together, AL&H adds incredible synergy to our client projects that have an advertising, branding or promotional component.

Our Graphic Design Partner

Caroline Volandt-Rider, President/Creative Director
Eric T. Rider, Director of Web Design & Development/Graphic Design

Global Communicators’ graphic design partner is Two Rider Design, a full-service design and marketing firm that specializes in corporate identity packages, branding campaigns and custom web site design and development. The agency offers our clients the competitive edge they need to distinguish themselves in a crowded marketplace.

Whether a GC client needs a comprehensive review and analysis of its current marketing efforts or a freshening of its company’s logo and marketing materials, Two Rider Design has the knowledge and experience needed to take a project from concept to completion.

Two Rider, like Global Communicators, believes in working closely with a client to develop ideas and implement projects based upon a client’s needs and objectives while maintaining deadlines and budgets. GC shares with Two Rider a pride in the relationships we build, as well as the personalized attention we place on individual projects.

Dr. Bulent Aliriza

Dr. Bulent Aliriza, an expert on Turkish foreign and domestic policy issues, is Senior International Adviser to Global Communicators. He serves as Senior Associate and Director of the Turkey Project at the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. Dr. Aliriza is also Co-Director of the CSIS Caspian Energy Project and has advised multi-national energy companies on gas and oil issues related to the Caspian region. Previously he was a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a diplomat with posts at the United Nations and in Washington. He has a bachelor’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a doctor of philosophy in international relations from Oxford. Dr. Aliriza speaks Turkish and French.

Frederick Campbell

As a Senior International Adviser to Global Communicators, Fred Campbell brings the marketing and communications expertise of 35 years as an advertising, public relations and entertainment executive as well as an author of articles and screenplays. For the past 15 years, Mr. Campbell has headed Image Communications, creating and marketing prestige entertainment projects for world distribution. In his early years, Mr. Campbell was with CBS Television. He has produced television programs for 20th Century Fox, NBC, and BBC.

Pierre K. Glauser

International economic development and investment expert Pierre K. Glauser, based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, is a Global Communicators Senior International Adviser. Mr. Glauser, an international management consultant, was executive director of the Canton Vaud Council for Economic Development, director of the Swiss Watch Industry Federation and, an official of the Swiss Defense Department serving as assistant defense attaché at the Swiss Embassy. Multi-lingual in French, German and English, Glauser received a master’s degree in economics and business administration from Geneva University. He will provide advice and counsel on international projects and foreign direct investment.

Mark A. Groombridge, Ph.D.

Before collaborating with Global Communicators, Mr. Groombridge served in a number of key positions in the U.S. Government providing strategic advice advancing U.S. interests on a number of critical issues. Most recently, he served as Senior Advisor for Policy Planning at the Department of Commerce where he oversaw and developed strategies to promote America’s technological leadership and international trade. Prior to this, he worked at the U.S. State Department both in Washington and New York. In Washington, he served as the principal advisor on Asian Affairs to the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. In New York, he served as Counselor and Chief of Staff to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. In this latter capacity, he had the opportunity to serve as the lead negotiator for the U.S. on UN budgetary matters, as well as spearhead negotiations on several critical Security Council resolutions. Before joining government, Mr. Groombridge worked at several prominent research institutes, including the Cato and the American Enterprise Institute. He has been a frequent commentator on television and has spoken at conferences across the globe. His publication record includes over 30 articles and a book on Chinese trade policy. He has taught at Columbia, George Washington, and Johns Hopkins University. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Lee W. Huebner, Ph.D.

Lee Huebner brings to the Global Communicators Board of Senior International Advisers a lifetime of high-level international media, political and academic experience. He has been Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University since 2006. He previously served as Professor of Communication Studies and Journalism at Northwestern University. From 1979-1993 he was Publisher and CEO of the Paris-based International Herald Tribune. Mr. Huebner also worked as Deputy Director of the White House Writing and Research Staff during the Nixon administration, coming to that position from the presidency of the Ripon Society, a research organization which he helped to found. A former President of the American University of Paris, he has chaired the Center for the Study of International Communications in Paris, the American Chamber of Commerce in France and the European Council of American Chambers of Commerce. He has been a board member for media companies in Hong Kong and East Africa and works as an advisor to the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development.

Catic Mohammed

Catic Mohammed, an international businessman based in the United Arab Emirates with contacts around the world, provides Global Communicators with the benefit of his many years of international business experience as well as his extensive network of contacts in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Asia. As a Senior International Adviser to Global Communicators, his major responsibility is new business development, but his trusted advice and judgment are invaluable assets he brings to the corporation.

Antonio Pineda

Antonio Pineda, an international consultant with over 16 years of experience, specializes in international relations and economics as a Global Communicators’ Senior International Adviser. He previously was program coordinator in the Secretariat of the North American Commission for Labor Cooperation in Washington DC. Mr. Pineda held a series of governmental posts in Mexico City including director of international affairs and protocol for the Mexican Senate, coordinating various high-level international meetings on economic and political issues. He was also a high-level official of the Ministry of Economy, overseeing trade policy issues within the World Trade Organization, OECD and APEC. Mr. Pineda interned at the Market Access Division of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, and in the trade attaché’s office of the Mexican Embassy in Rome. Mr. Pineda holds a master’s degree from SAIS at Johns Hopkins University and has been a lecturer on international finance at Universidad de las Américas AC in Mexico City. He was a visiting professor at Universidad la Salle. Mr. Pineda is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian.

Jill A. Schuker
Senior International Adviser

Jill A. Schuker, Senior International Adviser, is a former special assistant to President Clinton for National Security Affairs and deputy White House communications director. She is president of JAS International, a strategic communications, issues management, and media consulting firm based in Washington. Ms. Schuker brings impressive national security and government relations credentials to the agency. Her years of experience in the Clinton Administration‘s National Security Council and Commerce Department and the Carter Administration’s U.S. Mission to the United Nations and State Department enhance our expertise in serving international clients. Ms. Schuker, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has published numerous articles on public diplomacy, civil liberties and security issues. She has served as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and currently is a Shapiro Fellow and Adjunct Professor at George Washington University.

Maximilian Ullmann

Mr. Ullmann has over thirty-five years of experience in international business and marketing, technology transfer, and government relations in Europe, the United States, the Middle-East, Africa, Asia, and around the world. In addition to his work with Global Communicators, Mr. Ullmann represents clients in dealings with The World Bank, International Finance Corporation, InterAmerican Development Bank, and other international finance institutions. Mr. Ullmann also served as manager of Far East and Pacific Distributors operations for EXXON Corporation. In this post Max found himself deeply involved inter-relating with various Asian governments and working closely with local officials. For sixteen years Mr. Ullmann served as senior executive for the FIAT Group, Italy’s largest private industrial corporation. In 1989, he was appointed Vice President of Defense Systems, at FIAT’s Washington, DC office, following various managing positions in the Defense Vehicle Division of IVECO, FIAT’s industrial and military vehicles arm, including establishment of their Middle-East operations in Dubai, UAE. Mr. Ullmann studied psychology and sociology at the Universities of Geneva, Switzerland, and Tuebingen, Germany.