Biography – JONATHAN WOOTLIFF
JONATHAN WOOTLIFF is a corporate responsibility consultant, specializing in helping multinational corporations build productive relationships with NGOs, advocacy and activist groups through effective engagement.
Based in Europe, he travels extensively within the continent, as well as to the United States and Australasia, where he assists companies in building sustainable development strategies.
Jonathan has undertaken client assignments for a wide range of companies including Altria, British Petroleum, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Merrill Lynch, Procter and Gamble, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, Unocal, the Whirlpool Corporation and the Indonesian paper and pulp producer, APRIL. He has extensive knowledge in the energy, forestry, agriculture, food, and extractive industries sectors.
He was formerly the Communications Director for Greenpeace International, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands where he was a member of the organization’s Senior Management team. With overall responsibility for a department of 42 professionals, Jonathan managed the organization's public outreach and communications in over 35 countries.
During his tenure at Greenpeace, Jonathan was engaged in a wide range of difficult and controversial issues including genetically modified organisms and climate change. This involved leading many high profile challenges targeted at the fossil fuel industries and major chemical companies. But he was also involved in many behind-the-scenes dialogues with corporations. Among his many assignments, Jonathan managed the Greenpeace communications work at the Kyoto climate ministerial summit and the organization's liaison with the Sydney Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games.
Before returning to the commercial world, Jonathan worked with the Washington DC-based World Resources Institute both in helping the create the Global Forest Watch initiative and in establishing the organization’s strategy and presence at the 1999 WTO summit in Seattle .
Jonathan’s work involves enhancing improving his clients’ understanding of the demands of the NGOs and other Civil Society groups by identifying critical issues of concern as they relate to particular companies and industry sectors. He evaluates the risks of corporations being exposed to public controversy and explores viable ways for his clients to meet these stakeholders’ expectations and explores opportunities for establishing mutually beneficial partnerships.
He strongly encourages corporations to go out and meet with NGOs, and provides training for senior corporate managers to minimize the possibility of confrontation and maximize the prospects of finding common ground. He weighs up the values of his clients' against the particular demands of their Civil Society “watchdogs” and works closely each company to find ways of embedding genuine, robust and consistent standards throughout their corporate cultures .
A qualified journalist, Jonathan moved in to public relations consulting in 1972 and has worked for major international firms, including Hill and Knowlton - where he worked both in London and New York - and for Fleishman-Hillard for whom he opened their London office in 1989.
Jonathan Wootliff, Moskevská 47. 101 00. Praha 10, CzechRepublic.
Telephone: +420 267 311 266. Email: