Philippe Borremans

Philippe Borremans holds a Public Relations degree from the INIREP, (Institut International des Relations Publiques) and started his business communications career at Porter Novelli International, a global public relations rm in 1995.

During his 4 year stay as a Public Relations Consultant he worked for organizations like Federal Express, Iomega, Monsanto and the Association of Plastic Manufacturers in Europe. While at Porter Novelli he managed national and international public relations programs ranging from pure media relations to EC related influencer programs on a European level.

In 1997 he started to specialize in crisis communications and in - what was then called online PR. His crisis communications experience covers union strikes, an airplane crash, a flame site and product recalls.

During 1998 he worked in the offices of the agency in Boston for some time to gain experience in the latest web developments and how these were applied to traditional public relations. Since then, applying the web and related technologies as communications and collaboration tools has been his passion.

In October 1999 - just in time for Y2K - he was asked to join IBM Belgium in the function of Public Relations Manager for the IBM Global Services business unit. After one year he was asked to hold the responsibility for all external communications of all IBM business units in Belgium & Luxembourg.

During the next 4 years he managed media relations and influencer programs for the company around a multitude of subjects ranging from innovation, diversity to healthcare & the environment over virtual worlds and their business impact.

From 2005 onwards he held a European coordination role for IBM's online communications activities and the use of social media in the context of public relations. He managed a virtual team of 7 colleagues across Europe and became one of IBM's evangelists, often speaking at international conferences and C-level client meetings.

In January 2008 Philippe took a 1 year leave from IBM.

In June 2009 has was asked to take on the role of Chief Social Media Officer at the Van Marcke Group of companies, a Belgian holding with several companies active in different sectors like wholesale, retail & manufacturing. The group is active worldwide and employs 1400 employees.

In his capacity of Chief Social Media Officer, reporting to the founders of the group, Philippe was responsible for all online communications, internal and external and for the roll out of social media within the group in the context of business communications & collaboration.

Today, Philippe lives in Casablanca, Morocco and is an international PR Consultant and professional trainer and keynote speaker.

Philippe is a founding member & member of the board of the International Association of On-line Communicators, a full member of the European Association of Communications Directors and Member of the Board of the International Public Relations Association.

Philippe speaks English, French and Dutch. His previous blog Conversationblog.com was awarded "Best PR Blog" by Communication Director magazine's readers.

He is a regular speaker at industry conferences across Europe & North Africa and is a guest lecturer at several universities. Some of his speaking engagements on the topic of business communications:

Prague Security Studies Institute Summit - Prague (Czech Republic) Les Blogs - Paris (France) Online Information Conference - London (UK) From Vision To Solutions Conference - Prnu (Estonia) Melcrum -Intranet 2.0 Forum, London (UK): Internal Communications and the use of Social Media in the Enterprise Marcus Evans - New Media and Public Relations Conference, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) The Social Media Forum for Internal Communicators - London (UK) European Association of Communications Directors Summit - Brussels (Belgium) Social Media & PR. EACD Regional Debate on Social Media - Beograd (Serbia) Course: Online Communications & Defense. Royal Military Academy - Brussels (Belgium) Course: Social Media & Business Management. La Sorbonne - Paris (France) Social Media ROI. Digital Communications Conference - Copenhagen (Denmark)