People

Sue is a foundation partner of SEC Newgate and one of Australia’s most sought-after market and social researchers for strategic communications counsel. She has close to 30 years’ experience advising corporates on high stakes reputation issues, public policy and regulatory affairs, financial transactions, stakeholder and community engagement. She is also SEC Newgate’s lead adviser on ESG issues.

She started her career in communications consulting before moving into research, fascinated by its power in ensuring strategy and messaging is underpinned by objective fact rather than gut feel and assumption. Her strategic counsel is integral to SEC Newgate’s strategic communications offering to clients and identifying the most effective ways to engage and influence.

Sue leads an award-winning research team and has particular expertise in leading sensitive community and stakeholder research for organisations facing complex issues, as well as on key policy issues, stakeholder reputation research, message and narrative development.

She’s also a highly sought after facilitator for stakeholder and community workshops, including co-design and deliberative processes.

She has led extensive global research into community expectations of corporates, how they make judgements on environmental, social and governance actions, and how organisations can leverage ESG actions to boost their reputation.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Organisational Communication from Charles Sturt University and a Masters in International Communications from Macquarie University. She is a Qualified Professional Researcher (QPR), a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), has the IAP2 Certificate of Engagement and is on the board of the Australian Polling Council.