The IPRAC Faculty

Jürgen Togotzes has concentrated his counselling on corporate issues, assessment of corporate threats and opportunities. He is an expert on crisis communication and crisis preparedness and played a chief counselling role in many of the most visible corporate crises of the past. Prior to founding IPRAC he was holding top positions in international PR consultancies: Chairman of Manning, Selvage & Lee heading operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa. As Executive Vice President of Burson-Marsteller he was responsible for all operation in German speaking countries and Hungary.

Michael Pielenz, Ph.D., has vast academic teaching experience in Germany and China, last as professor at the University of Business and Economics in Beijing. Living in the Chinese capital for more than ten years he knows the two cultures very well and is an expert in the field of intercultural communication. He gained practical experience in PR from working with Burson-Marsteller as a senior counsellor. Now he heads the IPRAC operations in China as managing director.

Rainer Desens is an experienced PR professional with an extensive background in journalism comprising almost every kind of media from national dailies to magazines, radio and TV. His career includes the positions of chief editor and head of the new projects of Reader's Digest and chief reporter with Europe’s No. 1 tabloid. For more than ten years he was member of the board of management at Burson-Marsteller, Germany (vice president, managing director). In 1998 he founded his own consultancy in Germany

Helmut Wagner has longstanding experience from working in corporations and communications consultancies. His activities during the last ten years were centered on complex societal and scientific issues, corporate social responsibility, responsible marketing and advocacy. He runs his own Public Affairs consultancy in Brussels where he is familiar with EU institutions and Brussels based industry and NGO communities. His earlier positions in Brussels were Director General of The Amsterdam Group (TAG), an alliance of leading alcohol beverages producers, and Director Public Affairs EMEA for the biotech company Monsanto. Before he was Public Affairs Manager Germany, Austria and Switzerland for Monsanto and Director Corporate Communications for the industries division of Daimler-Chrysler. His consulting experience embraces Burson Marsteller (Managing Director of the Munich office) and Hill & Knowlton (Managing Director Germany and Member of the European Board).

Ferdinand (“Ferry”) de Bakker has 35 years experience in corporate communications and management consulting and has successfully managed assignments for ITT, Akzo Nobel, the Royal Netherlands Army, McDonnell-Douglas, ABB, KLM/NorthWest and the Boston Consulting Group. Other work included leading strategy development projects for Det Norske Veritas; involvement in sales campaigns for Lockheed, Boeing, Sikorsky and Textron; development and coordination of a global marketing campaign for Factors Chain International; and a variety of projects for Royal Dutch/Shell, Accenture and CitiCorp. Mr. de Bakker has worked and lived in the Middle East, the UK, Belgium, Singapore and Malaysia. He currently lives and works on a variety of projects in France.