PROI Appoints International Board Members

PROI Worldwide (PROI), the world’s largest and leading partnership of independent public relations and communications consultancies with fee income approaching US$ one billion, has re-appointed five directors and appointed two new directors to its International Management Board.
 
At its International Meeting of Partners, held in Quebec City, Canada, PROI appointed Rania Azab and Ciro Reis to its Board and re-appointed an existing slate of five directors consisting of Lena Soh-Ng, Angela Scaffidi, Lisa Ross, Laura Tomasetti and Kaija Pohjala. 
 
Newly appointed to the PROI Board, Rania Azab is Group CEO of 4PR Group headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, offering services to clients throughout the Middle East. 4PR Group is an integrated communications group serving a wide variety of dynamic and world-leading companies.
 
"This is the first time that PROI has appointed a Vice-Chair from the Middle East and Africa reflecting the emphasis PROI places on the strength of local expertise and knowledge of local cultures,” said Azab, adding “PROI plays an important role in bringing local thinking to our clients across the Globe and I will bring deep expertise and insights that reflect cultural understandings from the Middle East and Africa”. 
 
Ciro Reis, formerly a Vice-Chair of PROI’s Americas Region, was re-appointed to represent the South American communications industry. Reis is President of Imagem Corporativa, one of Brazil’s major communications agencies based in Sao Paulo with additional offices in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. He is a former President of the Brazilian Association of PR companies (Abracom).
 
"PROI's growth has always been based on effective collaboration between partner agencies," said Reis, adding “PROI Worldwide has maintained solid values since its inception 49 years ago, while at the same time knowing that its partner agencies would need to follow the evolution of the PR industry".
 
Existing directors that were re-appointed were Lena Soh-Ng, Senior Partner of Huntington Communications in Singapore, Angela Scaffidi, Managing Partner of Senate SHJ in Australia, Lisa Ross, President of RBB in Miami, Laura Tomasetti, CEO of 360+ in Boston and Kaija Pohjala, Managing Partner of cocomms in Finland.
 
Rounding out the Board are Clare Parsons, PROI’s Global Chairman and Chair of London-based reputation management consultancy, Lansons, Allard W. van Veen, PROI’s only remaining Founding Partner and its Global Managing Director since 1993, and Jean Leopold Schuybroek, PROI’s Director of Global Development and a former Global President of The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) which represents more than 3,000 public relations consultancies around the world.
 
Stepping down from the PROI Board were its former Global Chairman Richard Tsang, Chairman of the Strategic Public Relations Group in Hong Kong and with offices throughout China and in Taiwan, and Henning Sverdrup, Partner, Slaeger, Norway.