Principal-led independent advisory

Where value is created, protected and captured. In times of radical change.

Advice on the value communications adds to a business. For the boards and executive teams who invest in it. The leaders who run it. And the owners of the firms that sell it.

The moment

Tomorrow’s value is being shaped today.

The way communications works was built for yesterday. The opportunity is in what comes next.

Most functions, budgets and partnerships were designed for a time when producing communications was slow and expensive, and the job was mainly to react and fill channels. Today production is fast and cheap, attention is scarce, and judgement, trust and the ability to adapt are worth more than ever. For the businesses that move early, the opportunity is real. For those that wait, communications becomes a cost to be cut.

AI disruption

Investors and boards are asking whether business models can survive AI, and communications has to show what it adds now that producing it costs so little.

Geopolitical fracture

Volatility across borders is higher than at any point in generations, making decisions harder and their consequences harder to predict.

Societal pressure

Expectations on conduct and transparency have never been higher, and a misstep can destroy in days what took years to build.

What it asks of you

Boards and executive teams

From a cost you accept to a value you count on.

Most boards know what communications costs and accept it. Far fewer can say what it adds. I help you make it a driver of value you can see: clear on what it is for, what it should cost and what it returns.

Communications leaders

Drive real value from a function built for today’s reality.

The leaders who do well next will own the value communications creates and be measured on it. I help you rethink the operating model, roles and structure so the function can adapt again and again, and make the case at the top.

Owners and operators of communications businesses

Reimagine a business model that has run out of steam.

The model that built this industry is under pressure, clients are already buying differently, and change is coming whether anyone welcomes it or not. I help you see honestly where the firm is weak, decide what clients will pay for next and lead the change.

Transformation

Most transformations are announced well and delivered badly.

Communications decides much of that gap: whether leaders tell the same story, whether people know what changes for them, and whether customers, investors and staff believe the change is real. I work with the leadership team while the change is happening, so you see early where it is stalling and why.

The work

The value of communications.
Measured in outcomes, not activity.

Created

Growth

What grows?

In the market, communications helps the business sell more, grow faster and command a higher value. Inside, it makes sure people understand the strategy and change how they work to deliver it.

Protected

Resilience

What could destroy it?

The licence to operate can now be challenged overnight, from anywhere. Communications protects value by seeing exposure early and helping leaders decide well under pressure.

Captured

Economics

Who gets the value?

There is often a gap between what a business is worth and how investors and buyers value it. Communications helps close it, so more of the value created stays with the business and is realised by its owners.

The value test

What does this create, protect and capture?

Ask it of every decision that matters. The best decisions do all three. Most do one or two. The gap is where value is lost.

Track record

Ran the business.
Built the function.

The biggest questions in communications need someone who has run the business.

I have worked from all three sides of this market: running a communications business, building a function inside a global company, and advising the boards and CEOs who invest in both.

Arent Jan (AJ) Hesselink speaking at an event

Edelman

For more than a decade, I led international communications consultancy businesses at scale. As President and CEO of Edelman EMEA, I ran a region of more than 1,500 people across 17 offices, leading substantial growth and a major transformation of its business model.

Royal Philips

I served as CMO for Asia Pacific, where I built a fully integrated regional marketing function. As Global Transformation Lead, I designed and delivered a new integrated marketing and communications function across markets and businesses.

Dow Jones

In media, I led the Benelux bureau for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for years. It taught me to read what a company’s numbers and language are really saying, and to see early how a story will move a market.

I have led businesses through structural disruption, from changing industry economics and AI to major geopolitical upheaval. I have also counselled dozens of clients through major transactions and transformations, and through reputational and leadership challenges.

After decades of leading businesses and teams, I am building Fox Meridian for what comes next in this industry.

How Fox Meridian works

An advisory practice
for this moment.

The principal. Directly.

Fox Meridian is a senior principal at the centre, with specialists brought in for each mandate and technology doing the routine work. Every resource goes to your mandate.

Method, applied with judgement.

I bring frameworks and tools refined over decades of this work, and I use them where they fit. Every situation is different, so I start by taking the time to understand yours. The recommendation follows what I find.

A limited number of mandates.

Three to four at any one time, chosen for fit, scale and significance. I stay selective on purpose, so every mandate gets my full attention.

The right people, assembled.

When a mandate calls for it, I bring in the best available across reputation, transformation, AI, legal and finance. People I have worked with and trust. You get a team shaped around your situation, with one person accountable.

Embedded. Accountable.

Fox Meridian works alongside the leadership. I take a view, give a direction and own the advice. The person you meet is the person who does the work.

Contact

Get in
touch.

For mandate enquiries, referrals, or a confidential conversation about creating, protecting or capturing value.

advisory@fox-meridian.com →

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In a first call we talk about where you are, what you want to change and what getting it right is worth.

One call. Forty-five minutes. We will know whether and how I can help you create more value for your business.