GCI Group Canada has launched a national public affairs practice, which will be led by Ken Boessenkool and Jamie Carroll, both of GCI’s sister company, Hill & Knowlton Canada.
Boessenkool will work from Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto, while Carroll serves as vice-president from the Toronto office. Both will report to GCI Canada’s president, Marion MacKenzie.
“With the addition of a distinct public affairs capability we can provide fully integrated, senior strategic communications counsel to our current and future clients across all aspects of their businesses,” said MacKenzie. “Both Ken and Jamie will be a tremendous addition to our senior team.”
Carroll was the national director of the Liberal Party of Canada, and served as a senior advisor to Canada’s minister of the environment in the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2005. Boessenkool was once senior policy advisor and strategist to national Conservative leader Stephen Harper, and established an Alberta-based consulting practice providing strategic, regulatory, tax and economic policy advice to government, non-profit and private sector clients.
“GCI Canada is an entrepreneurial and innovative communications consulting firm with an outstanding client portfolio,” said Boessenkool in a release. “We will be building on this reputation by introducing a unique and competitive public affairs offering at a time of unusual complexity for business and government.”
