Seasoned crisis and reputation risk practitioner to lead growing firm in the city
Megan Spoore appointed to deputy general manager
Edelman today announced the appointment of John Larsen to general manager of Edelman Calgary, effective immediately. Larsen, who has been with the firm for 18 months, will continue to serve as executive vice president and national practice lead, crisis and reputation risk. Megan Spoore, vice president of client strategy/crisis and reputation risk and a six-year veteran of the firm, will take on the additional role of deputy general manager.
Larsen has more than 25 years of expertise and is well-known in the Calgary market, having held leadership positions at PR agencies, within government and in the corporate sector. He was the founder of Corpen Group Inc., Canada’s largest independent critical communications firm. He has also managed political campaigns, taught at four Canadian colleges and universities and served 31 years as an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Larsen holds a master’s degree in communications, is a graduate of the Canadian Forces Command & Staff College, and has completed executive education in leadership at Harvard University. He is a recipient of the International Association of Business Communications (IABC) ‘Master Communicator’ Award – the highest honor in the public relations industry – and in 2014 he was designated as a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D).
Spoore will support Larsen in her role as deputy general manager. She has already demonstrated her strong leadership abilities in this capacity, having taken on the role interim Calgary general manager last year for a four-month period.
Spoore has provided strategic counsel to clients from across Canada in a wide variety of industry sectors including energy, consumer packaged goods, government, transportation, natural resources and healthcare. She holds a master’s degree in professional communications from the University of Western Sydney in Australia, a post-graduate corporate communications diploma from Seneca College in Toronto and an Honors B.A. from the University of Guelph.
About Edelman
Edelman is a leading global communications marketing firm that partners with many of the world’s largest and emerging businesses and organizations, helping them evolve, promote and protect their brands and reputations.
Our Canadian business has matured from one that has been primarily geography- and practice-focused to one that is also specialty-focused. Our offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal offer several specialized areas of expertise — including Creative, Crisis & Risk, Public Affairs, Insights & Analytics, Paid Media and Digital — to deliver best-in-class work to our clients in today’s complex media landscape.
Edelman was named one of Advertising Age’s “Agency to Watch” in 2014; one of Forbes’ “14 Most Influential Agencies of 2014”; The Holmes Report’s “2016 Global Agency of the Year”; and was awarded the Grand Prix Cannes Lion Titanium in 2016. In Canada, Edelman was among the top three finalists for Marketing Magazine’s 2015 Agency of the Year and has been named one of the Great Place to Work® Best Workplaces in Canada and Best Workplaces for Women for five consecutive years.