Weber Shandwick Hires Christiaan Brown to Lead U.S. West Corporate Practice
Weber Shandwick announced today the appointment of Christiaan Brown as executive vice president, corporate for the U.S. West region, which encompasses Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Seattle. Brown brings to Weber Shandwick more than two decades of experience advising Fortune 500 companies on issues spanning corporate reputation, market share growth, crisis, litigation, restructuring and leadership transition.
“Over the past 20 years, Christiaan has built a tremendous reputation as a trusted advisor to executives and communicators at some of the most important American companies, including Starbucks and Microsoft,” said Will Ludlam, president, U.S. West, Weber Shandwick. “Corporations on the West Coast have a unique sensibility born out of the technology industry and regional culture, and Christiaan has a keen understanding of this mindset, as well as a unique ability to work at the nexus of technology and corporate. He is the perfect person to help us continue to evolve our corporate offering in the region, and I could not be more excited to have him join our team.”
Brown joins Weber Shandwick from Edelman, where he was executive vice president of technology, director of operations for the agency’s Seattle office, and a member of the global client experience team. There, he led the global relationship with Symantec, including corporate, B2B and consumer programs in North America, EMEA and the APAC region. Prior to this, Brown led the Starbucks U.S. corporate and brand communications team responsible for seminal brand moments, including the formation of the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative and the launch of Mobile Order & Pay.
Brown has led programs for technology brands such as Qualcomm, Microsoft, HP, SanDisk, AMD, VeriSign, Yahoo! and eBay, and he has partnered with brands across healthcare, retail, airline, wireless/telecom and natural resource industries. Brown is also the founder of the C.A.S.H.E Conference at Washington State University, which empowers Mexican-American and other underrepresented youth to pursue higher education. He will be based in Seattle, and his new role is effective immediately.
“Weber Shandwick is a powerhouse global agency with a laser focus on solving challenges for clients,” said Brown. “I’m excited to partner with this impressive network to deliver measurable impact to our clients’ businesses throughout the West Coast.”