Course team
Liz Cochrane FIIC
Board Director and Chair of the Professional Development Advisory Board at the Institute of Internal Communication.
Liz is the Course Director for the Masters in Internal Communication Management, and also responsible at Board level for IoIC's Professional Development activities. Liz is also a director of Facta Consult, a small employee research consultancy focused on helping organisations understand the perspective of their people. Liz's background includes managing communication in-house, consultancy and training. She is passionate about the difference internal communication can make, and privileged to be playing her part in that through IoIC.
Oli Howard
Oli’s main work is with the CIPD, the body for HR and the wider people profession, where he is Head of Membership. He has previously worked in senior communication roles for public and charity sector organisations, with a strong focus on internal communication. He is the lead author of the IoIC's guide to IC strategy and an alumni of the programme with Kingston University, having graduated with Distinction in 2012. Oli is a Module Leader for the IoIC's Masters in Internal Communication.
Domna Lazidou
Domna has a background as a practitioner and academic and is an expert in culture, communication and leadership in complex, multicultural organisations. Domna combines consultancy with leading a unit for the Masters and teaching intercultural communication for business and the professions at Warwick University.
Domna has designed and runs several executive training programmes on global leadership and diverse teams for Oxford Business School as well as a popular training course on Communicating Culture Change for the IoIC. She is the co-author of “Global Fitness for Global People: How to manage and leverage cultural diversity at work”.
Ranjit Sidhu
Ranjit is a change specialist and is responsible for the sessions on change and influencing stakeholders for the Masters programme.
As a trainer and consultant at ChangeQuest, she runs certified change management practitioner training and provides practical support and guidance to organisations, so they can effectively communicate and engage people in delivering successful projects and change initiatives.
Ranjit wrote the Communication and Engagement chapter in the ‘Effective Change Manager Handbook’ and the book ‘Titanic lessons in project leadership – effective communication and team building’. Ranjit is an alumni of the programme with Solent University.
Guest Speakers
The programme also includes expert guest speakers on topics such as influencing at the highest level, collaboration, neuroscience and social media.
Rita Men
Linjuan Rita Men, Ph.D., APR, is a Professor of Public Relations and Director of Internal Communication Research in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. She founded and directs the Internal Communication Research Hub, a virtual space dedicated to fostering innovative research, education, and best practices in internal communication. With a background in corporate communication research and consulting, Men’s research interests include internal communication, leadership communication, emerging technologies, and entrepreneurial communications.
Men has published more than 100 articles in refereed journals and as book chapters. She is the (co-) author/editor of four books, Excellence in Internal Communication Management (Business Expert Press, 2017), Strategic Communications for Startups and Entrepreneurs in China (Routledge, 2020), Current Trends and Issues in Internal Communication: Theory and Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and Internal Communication and Employee Engagement: A Case Study (Routledge, 2023). Men’s contributions to the field have been widely recognized through numerous top paper/research awards and recognitions from national and international communication associations and conferences, including the 2022 Hillier Krieghbaum Under-40 Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Men serves as an associate editor for Journal of Communication Management and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society. Men has worked internationally with Alibaba Group, Inc., Ketchum, Inc., and provided management communication consulting for various multinational corporations, startups, and non-profit organizations.
Marc Wright
Marc Wright is a serial entrepreneur, building and leading businesses in the internal communications space.
Simply – the community and consultancy for internal communications is the market leader in the IC tech space. The biannual simplyIC and simplyEXP conferences are the biggest events of their kind in the UK. He sold Simply to Gallagher Comms in Feb 2024.
Previously he was Chairman of MCA Live, a live events agency specialising in large scale engagement programmes, which he sold to WPP in 2001.
Back in the 1990s he bought Crown, one of the largest corporate video producers in the UK and turned it into a major producer of live events.
Marc started his career in television making science documentaries and TV drama including the soap 20 Steps to Better Business for the BBC. He wrote Tevolution, The Evolution of TV Satellite and Cable and edited The Gower Handbook of Internal Communication. He is a Past President of the Internal Association of Business Communicators (IABC) for EMENA.
Hilary Scarlett
Hilary is an international speaker, consultant and author. Her work has spanned Europe, North America and Asia, and focuses on helping leaders in the private and public sectors to introduce change efficiently and effectively. In particular, she designs masterclasses and workshops based on the belief that if we can understand our brains better, we can work with that knowledge and help improve both our wellbeing and performance at work.
Hilary holds an MA from Cambridge University, has a post-graduate Certificate in the Psychology of Organisation Development and Change and is an accredited executive coach with the Institute of Leadership and Management.
Hilary works with neuroscientists in the UK and in the USA, bringing their work out of the lab and into the workplace in a very practical and accessible way.
A second edition of her book Neuroscience for Organizational Change - an evidence-based, practical guide to managing change was published in 2019 and has been widely praised. Hilary published Brainpower at Work – tips on building a brain-friendly workplace in 2022.
Hilary is a member of the British Neuroscience Association and the British Psychological Society.
Recent clients include: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Bloomberg; Office of National Statistics; NHS; Home Office; Crown Prosecution Service.
Dominic Walters FIIC
Dominic has specialised in leadership and direct manager communication and development for over 30 years. He has worked in senior ‘in-house’ roles and as a coach and consultant in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US, supporting leadership teams across a range of sectors.
He has also featured in print, TV and audio promoting effective leadership communication and is the co-host of the Future of Internal Communication podcast. Dominic has worked with line manager groups for a range of clients including recently United Biscuits, H&M, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue and Telia Group.
Dominic is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and past national Chairman, Governance Adviser and Fellow and President-Elect of the Institute of Internal Communication.
Rachel Miller FIIC
Rachel Miller is an internationally recognised authority on Internal Communication (IC) and author of Internal Communication Strategy (Kogan Page, 2024). A former journalist, she has 20 years’ internal communication experience and advises many of the world’s best-known companies through her consulting business, All Things IC. She’s a Chartered PR Practitioner and Fellow of the Institute of Internal Communication and Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Rachel’s a keynote speaker and Candid Comms podcast host. She's listed in Inspiring Workplaces' top 101 global employee engagement influencers. In 2020, Rachel was awarded the Chartered Institute of Public Relations' President's Medal for distinguished service to PR.
Russell Grossman ABC, DipPR, FCIPR, FCIM, FRSA, IABC Fellow
Russell’s been a communications practitioner for some 40 years, and a Senior Civil Servant since 2006.
He’s currently Director of Communications at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the government department responsible for regulating Britain’s railways and England’s national highways and trunk roads. He’s also head of the Government Communication Service (GCS) internal communications profession and a member of its people board; a non-exec director of the “Engage for Success” movement for the advancement of employee engagement, and senior sponsor for the Government Communications Fast Stream.
Russell was Group Director of Communications at the Department for Business for eight years and Head of Change and Internal Communications at HMRC for the two years prior to that. He was Head of Internal Communications at the BBC for seven years and before that, Director of Communications at Royal Mail.
He’s been a visiting Fellow at CASS Business School and is a Past International Chair of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) of which he is now a Fellow. He currently sits on the IABC Fellow Selection Committee.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
Russell is married to a long-suffering wife of 39 years (and counting) and is blessed with four children (one of whom also works in communications) and five grandchildren.