Deborah is our Partner, Strategic Communication.
Deborah believes in the potential of organizations to create great experiences for the people that work for them and for the people and communities they serve.
She specializes in communications [and has a particular passion for, and understanding of, employee communications]. Over the past 20 years Deborah has helped her clients in Canada, the US, and UK – big and small, for profit and not, individuals and teams – achieve their business and professional goals.
You can find out more about Deborah’s professional practice, education, interests and recommendations on LinkedIn. She writes about the workplace and communications here. And she posts about these and other things that matter to her on Facebook and Twitter.
Deborah helps create conditions for outstanding organizational performance. She brings insight, innovation and a structured, integrated approach to mobilize and build momentum. Her unique and effective approach uses the principles of creating to help her clients design and implement strategies for achieving their business and professional goals.
Deborah’s insight helped us cut directly to the issue at hand and think creatively and productively about how to address it.
Zia Khan
Katzenbach Partners [after working together on a client transformation]
Smart, savvy, diligent and empathetic. That’s Deborah. Above and beyond her great writing and planning skills, she’s just nice to know and fun to work with.
Tom Mulhern
Associate Partner, VSA Partners [after working together on a client transformation]
At Alcan and Bombardier Aerospace, as Director of Internal Communication, Deborah led the transformation of their global functions.
Deborah challenged us to make our business better and helped us deliver internal communications that were about more than happy employees.
Dan Gagnier
SVP Corporate Services, Alcan Inc.
Deborah is far and away the best internal communications person I have ever worked with. she brought to Alcan a passionate desire to engage in 2-way conversations with our 70,000 employees and developed innovative approaches, surveys and communication vehicles to help managers achieve this objective. Her passion, dedication and commitment to honest talk made an impression that has guided me in the years since I left Alcan.
Ray Castelli
CEO, Weatherhaven
Deborah helped us make relevant and meaningful links between our business, brand and HR/OD strategies. The result – internal communications with real business impact.
Jean-Louis Poirier
SVP Human Resources, Bombardier Aerospace
Deborah has a BSc from Carleton and an MBA from Concordia University. She’s a member of the International Association of Business Consultants.
Deborah is committed to the ongoing development of her skills in structural consulting, a technique for helping clients quickly see, and understand, underlying and often hidden drivers of organizational behavior. To that end, she studies with best selling business author, structural dynamics pioneer and management consultant Robert Fritz. Deborah earned the designation certified structural consultant in 1998.
She’s a past member of the Institute of Management Consultants and held the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designation from 1986 to 2009.
She developed and delivered the first Internal Communication course in the PR Certification program at McGill University. Since 1998 she’s been an invited judge in Concordia’s John Molson School of Business annual M.B.A. international case competition.
Deborah is an active volunteer. She recently joined the John Molson Sustainable Business Group, as an external advisor. The group is a Concordia University student run initiative to expose students to thinking on and creating opportunities for sustainable business.
Deborah is proud to have been active volunteer for Equitas: International Centre for Human Rights [2004 - present] where she was Chair of the Communications Committee and member of the Board [2007 - 2011].
Deborah’s passion, energy and commitment is helping us to be better at what we do.
Ian Hamilton
Executive Director, Equitas
Deborah has great vision, as structured and disciplined approach to implementing that vision and as a Board and Executive Committee member has taken Equitas – International Centre for Human Rights Education to new heights in effectively communicating its mission and accomplishments.
Robert Yalden
Chairman of the Board, Equitas and Partner, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt
She’s also a past member of the Nomination Committee for the Project Chance Foundation Board and the Board of Directors of the Montreal Women’s Y where she served as president of the Femmes de Mérite Sponsorship Committee.