European Strategic Communications Network

People

RICU connected

• Richard Chalk Chalk was the head of RICU from 2012 to around 2015/6. In March 2017 Chalk appeared at a number of conferences representing the European Strategic Communications Network.
  • On 17 March spoke on 'Communication strategies: Governments and institutions and other key players responding to terrorism, migration information challenges, disinformation and declining trust' at a meeting of the Club of Venice titled, Seminar on 'Strategic communications challenges for Europe'.
  • On 30 March he spoke at “European response to terrorism” at the conference centre of the Radisson Blu Sky Hotel in Tallinn, Estonia. He was listed as 'Head' of the ESCN. and 'Head of advisory team'.

• Luke Havill Head of Advisory Team, Apr 2019 – Present - Location: Brussels. Providing advice to EU Member State governments and DG HOME on the use of strategic communications in P-CVE. Previously:
  • The Network Hub Development Director, Mar 2018 – Mar 2019, Location: London, United Kingdom - Building the capacity of civil society organisations across Europe to sustainably improve their reach and impact into communities where vulnerable individuals may be at risk of radicalisation.
  • Communications Adviser Europe with RICU-I (Aug 2017 – Mar 2018); and
  • Head Of Consultancy Syria Strategic Communications Advisory Team, Jan 2016 – Aug 2017, Brussels/ London.

• Simon Theis Jensen was Creative Director of the ESCN in Brussels (Jan 2016-September 2017). He joined ESCN after a year long spell (Oct 2014-Dec 2015) as Head of Art at Breakthrough Media in London. After ESCN he went on to be Creative Director at The Network Hub (Oct 2017 – Apr 2019) in London. In this role he: ‘helped initiate, build and run The Network Hub as the first ever government funded communication service to provide bespoke communication support to European civil society organisations. The agency was set up with the aim to build EU collaboration and to sustainably create positive social change in local communities across Europe.’ At ESCN Jensen noted he ‘directly consulted governments and policy makers on how to build communication capacity of civil society organisation as well as inspiring positive social change in vulnerable communities through strategic and creative communications.’

• Alex Lawrence-Archer
• Tony McMahon
• Hugo MacPherson is Head of Network at the European Strategic Communications Network (Jan 2015 – Present). His previous experience included stints as Deployable Civilian Expert (standby) for the UK Government's Stabilisation Unit (May 2011 – Present). His specialist area is listed as ‘the Islamic World’; a brief spell at Amnesty and Save the Children; over two years at Al Jazeera; and a brief stint setting up ‘independent’ radio stations in Afghanistan, ‘With US and international backing’ in 2004-5. Notably he ‘launched’ the MPower Youth Project - part of the government's Counter Terrorism Prevent agenda – in the London Borough of Hounslow(November 2008 – April 2011. At the time - from 2002-9 - the Principal Community Cohesion Officer at Hounslow, with oversight of Prevent spending, was Sabin Khan.

Beligan Ministry of the Interior connected

• Clement Coltellaro (CUTA)
• Giulia Giacomelli
• An Michiels, Michiels is an official with the intelligence agency the Coordination Unit for Threat Assessment (CUTA) and sits on the External Advisory Board of an EU funded project titled Trivalent. Michiels is listed as a member of ESCN circa November 2016.

Resources

• Luke Havill and Giulia Giacomelli, Jihadi Influence in Europe, ESCN. Trivalent Project, Rome, June 2019. Archive version Powerbase copy

See Also

RICU | CUTA | Radicalisation Awareness Network | Civil Society Empowerment Programme | EU Internet Forum