Ed Obrien

Head of Global Media Relations and Issues Management, Global Corporate Affairs Team @KPMG

London, GB

I joined KPMG in 2020 as Global Head of Issues Management, leading the international network’s communications response to sensitive, complex and high-stakes situations. The role involves working with communications and other business stakeholders within both KPMG International and within the member firms themselves to shape KPMG’s response whenever a challenging story arises. It includes creating communications materials from senior leadership, shaping issues handling strategy, and drafting reactive messaging. Due to the business-critical nature of this role, I was promoted to the level of Global Director in 2022.At the end of 2024, as part of a Communications Team restructure, my role was expanded to cover all Global media relations – both in terms of issues management and proactive media relations campaigns. This also meant that my team grew from two to five people.Key projects and achievements from this role include:• Responsibility for Corporate Communications milestones, shaping strategy and overseeing execution for milestones like financial results and corporate strategy announcements. • Overseeing thought-leadership campaigns and news stories from across the different parts of KPMG’s business, from technology moves to research papers. • Led the organization’s communications response to major global crises.• Protected the firm’s reputation through a huge range of reputational issues.• Creation and management of key protocols to ensure a consistent and high-quality communications approach throughout the world. • Built trusted relationships with teams throughout the business, including Marketing, Legal, Risk and on-the-ground communications teams across the world.• Putting together narratives about important or sensitive areas of corporate strategy.As well as the formal elements of this job role, I have also carved out a niche as the person the business comes to when faced with thorny reputational conundrums or hard-to-solve challenges.

Durham University

BA (1st), Latin