Edelman Australia Appoints New Group Managing Director

Edelman Australia has appointed Susan Redden Makatoa (feature image) as its new group MD.

Reporting to Edelman Australia CEO, Michelle Hutton, Redden Makatoa will be based in Sydney with a focus on building Edelman’s reputation and advisory work nationally.

“I am thrilled that Susan is joining Edelman. I could not think of a better person to help us build our business here. She is an exceptional, commercially astute client and business leader, who can foresee, drive and manage change,” said Hutton.

In addition to Redden Makatoa’s national leadership role, she will also have oversight and responsibility for all of Edelman’s reputation capabilities – in particular Edelman Australia’s public affairs offering.

“It’s a thrill to join Edelman at a time it’s growing, innovating and collaborating across the region. The people I’ve met so far have blown me away and I’m looking forward to working with them to deliver great work for clients,” Redden Makatoa said.

Dedicated to the growth and development of the communications profession, Susan is a leading corporate communications practitioner with over 20 years’ industry experience providing advice to leaders across the business, government and not-for-profit sectors.

In 2016, Redden Makatoa was awarded the PRIA President’s Award for major industry contribution. She has also won four global IABC Gold Quills, five regional Golden Sabres and eight PRIA National Golden Targets. She has judged the PRIA Golden Targets, IABC Gold Quills and Mumbrella CommsCon Awards.

Deeply committed to diversity in the workplace, Redden Makatoa was the author of the PRIA’s first diversity and inclusion policy in 2016. She has also been a speaker on the subject at TEDx, Macquarie University, IABC Global Conference, Women in Media and Communications and the CEO Institute.

“Our new look Executive Leadership Team drives our core capabilities in creativity, data and analytics, client leadership, operations and innovation. I’m very proud of the work we are delivering for clients and our plans to innovate to drive our business in Australia forward with new capabilities and tools.

“We are re-organising our teams to create more flexible and agile work across our agency. We want to be at the forefront of solutions as businesses look for new agency models to help deliver creative solutions and advisory services to use our craft to help them build and protect their brands and businesses,” Hutton concluded.

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