Greenpeace International (GPI) has appointed an interim
communications director to run its PR division in Amsterdam while it
renews its search for someone to fill the position permanently.
Brian Fitzgerald, special projects director at GPI, is the second person
to fill the post on a temporary basis.
He takes over from human resources director Gabrielle Lauermann who has
been heading up the communications division since August last year when
the unit relocated to the Netherlands.
Richard Titchen previously held the position when the global
communications unit was based in London, but he quit the organisation
rather than relocate.
GPI has to advertise the post again next week as so far it has not found
any candidates that fit the brief. The right candidate will need to have
international experience and be able to manage a 20-strong PR team. He
or she will also liaise with PR chiefs in the 32 Greenpeace offices
worldwide.
Meanwhile Greenpeace’s UK office is restructuring its press
department.
The role of media manager, which was filled by Adam Woolf until he left
to take a career break two weeks ago, has been upgraded to media
director.
’This is so that media gets represented at a senior management level for
the first time,’ said a Greenpeace spokesperson. In the meantime,
Woolf’s responsibilities are being taken on by press officer Mirella
Lindenfels.
The changes coincide with a new report commissioned by Greenpeace from
Opinion Leader Research, which reveals a change in the role of the
campaigning group. According to the report its role is ’no longer about
simply raising public awareness as in the 1980s. It is also about
offering solutions’.
The report goes on to say that campaigners have to recognise people’s
inability to relate to global, abstract issues and calls for some
modification of language and refocus on ’symbolic’ solutions.
