Anita Tiessen’s pedigree in the public sector stretches all the way
toanitoba, where she launched a career in the PR as a communications
officer for the Provincial Government.
To the casual observer, this may seem a long way from her new
London-based job as head of communications for the UK Committee of the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), where she heads up an 11-strong
team created by the recent merger of the press and information
departments.
But there is little doubt that she is well qualified for the role after
eight years at Amnesty International’s UK-based head office, where her
rise through the ranks coincided with major structural changes at the
charity.
Her job at UNICEF, which has its global headquarters in New York and
operates in 161 countries, will be to continue to raise its profile in
the ’corporate sphere’ and among consumers. In the UK the organisation
raises about pounds 10 million a year. ’My role will be to take the work
that UNICEF has done on branding and turn it into a communications
strategy that makes it clearer that we are making money for the UN, not
taking it from them,’ says Tiessen.
Part of this will involve promoting the cause-related marketing
programmes developed with corporate partners, the most successful of
which is British Airways’ Change for Good which in four years has raised
over pounds 6 million by encouraging air passengers to donate spare
foreign currency. There will also be communications work designed to
highlight specific UNICEF campaigns. This year the big theme has been
Children in Conflict, emphasising the plight of children in war-ravaged
areas. The next major campaign will concentrate on children growing up
alone, encompassing AIDS orphans, refugees, abandoned babies and street
kids.
Celebrity supporters of the charity, to whose ranks pop singer Robbie
Williams has recently been added, will be used to raise interest among
private donors. But there is also a vital role liaising with
Government.
Although the Department for International Development has increased the
Government’s core financial contribution to UNICEF’s long-term
development work by 17 per cent, generosity cannot be taken for granted
and there is a continual need to inform MPs and other opinion-shapers
about the charity’s activities.
In her eight years at Amnesty, Tiessen built up a considerable insight
into human rights issues which should prove very useful given that in
recent years UNICEF has attached greater weight to campaigning for
children’s rights. But she feels her biggest achievement at Amnesty was
to raise the importance with which media relations was regarded.
’When I arrived at Amnesty the attitude was that media relations was a
necessary evil. By the time I left people recognised it could advance a
political agenda and raise money. Communications moved from being a poor
cousin to the high table,’ she says. When she arrived the head of media
reported to a director who also oversaw publications, translation and
distribution. Following a restructure in 1995, Tiessen was appointed
director of an independent media and audio visual department, reporting
directly to one of the charity’s deputy directors. And the size of her
team doubled from four to eight.
Amnesty International campaigns director Andrew Anderson confirms the
assertion. ’Anita moved Amnesty away from being quite reactive to having
a media strategy. She helped take us into the 1990s if not the 21st
century.’
Tiessen’s media career began as a journalistic all-rounder on local
newspapers in Canada. From there she moved into PR for the Provincial
Government of Manitoba and finally to Amnesty. The fact that Anita
Tiessen has forged a career in the voluntary sector comes as no surprise
when one considers her background. She hails from Winnipeg in the heart
of Canada and was brought up in the Mennonite faith - an unconventional
Protestant sect that as well as rejecting infant baptism advocates doing
good deeds for others.
She is now firmly settled in the UK, having last year married a British
solicitor. In her spare time she keeps herself busy as a volunteer tour
guide at Highgate Cemetery.
A return to Manitoba seems highly unlikely. ’If they leave Winnipeg,
people don’t go back,’ she explains simply.
HIGHLIGHTS
1987: Communications officer, Provincial Government of Manitoba
1990: International press officer, Amnesty International
1994: Media and audiovisual programme director, Amnesty International
1998: Head of communications, UNICEF
