Website

Led and personally executed the redesign and relaunch of PEN International’s website as a core communications and advocacy platform (February 2023), transforming it into a live campaigning tool and delivering a fourfold increase in visits within one year (135K visits in 2022 to 624K visits in 2023).

In 2025, I led and oversaw a major upgrade to improve site speed (+67% faster load times), mobile usability, search functionality, content discovery, and SEO. I managed and worked hands-on with staff and consultants to deliver PEN International’s first fully searchable, interactive Online Case List, alongside embedded petitions, interactive flipbooks, and campaign-ready formats, significantly improving responsiveness and advocacy impact.

Consultancy-ready capabilities demonstrated: digital strategy, rapid delivery, advocacy-focused UX, content architecture, cross-functional coordination.

Key responsibilities included:

• Project Management: Held overall responsibility for planning, delivery, timelines, and quality assurance.
• Team Leadership (Lean Teams): Built and coordinated a small team of staff, volunteers, and consultants, ensuring clarity, accountability, and fast turnaround.
• Content Development: Personally authored, edited, and curated website content, ensuring alignment with brand voice, political sensitivity, and strategic messaging.

Strategic Communications

Spearheaded the creation and delivery of high-impact communications — from rapid-response media statements and campaign pages to social media messaging and long-form editorial content — combining strategic leadership with hands-on writing and editing in a lean team environment.

Designed a strategic storytelling architecture (messaging frameworks, templates, and modular formats) tailored to different audiences, enabling campaigns to build empathy, mobilise supporters, and strengthen PEN International’s visibility, credibility, and global reach.

Consultancy-ready capabilities demonstrated: messaging development, campaign design, editorial leadership, rapid turnaround, stakeholder coordination.

Key responsibilities included:

• Communications Strategy: Set editorial direction and messaging priorities across campaigns, media, and digital platforms.
• Editorial Leadership: Drafted, reviewed, edited, and approved content, ensuring clarity, consistency, and audience relevance.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Worked closely with PEN Centres, writers, partners, and international networks to align messaging and maximise reach.

Content examples:

• Yann Martel, Elif Shafak, Ali Smith, Olga Tokarczuk, and others, champion PEN International’s first ‘Literary Auction’
• Free Them All: Day of the Imprisoned Writer 2025
• PEN International launches Lenguas Vivas, celebrating Indigenous languages and literary voices
• OPT/Israel: PEN International calls for an immediate ceasefire, the protection of civilians, the release of all hostages and an end to the siege of Gaza

Advocacy and Representation

Provided high-stakes advocacy and crisis communications leadership for PEN International in cases involving persecuted writers and publishers, most notably during the extradition trial of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (released from detention on 24 June 2024).

Led messaging and advocacy positioning, engaging media and reinforcing PEN International’s role as a leading global voice on freedom of expression, human rights, and press freedom.

Consultancy-ready capabilities demonstrated: crisis communications, spokesperson work, legal sensitivity, media relations, partnership coordination.

Key responsibilities included:

• Trial Monitoring: Participated in court hearings as a trial monitor, representing PEN International on the ground.
• Content Strategy & Delivery: Personally authored media advisories, statements, Q&As, and talking points, and edited content produced by others.
• Partnership Management: Served as primary organisational point of contact with Stella Assange and her legal and advocacy team.
• Media Relations: Acted as organisational spokesperson, providing statements and commentary to international media.

Coverage highlights:

• Guardian: Julian Assange risks ‘flagrant denial of justice’ if tried in US, London court told
• Il Fatto Quotidiano: “Don’t extradite Julian Assange”, say UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Edwards, along with all major human rights organisations
• Free Assange Campaign: Live Interview from the Royal Court of Justice

Strategy and Governance

Devised and delivered PEN International’s Communications Strategy, combining long-term vision with direct operational oversight to ensure implementation across advocacy, engagement, storytelling, branding, governance, user experience, capacity building, legal compliance, and fundraising.

Devised key organisational assets, including PEN International’s visual branding, copyright policy, internal communications frameworks, workflows, and protocols. Led the organisation’s transition from X to Bluesky, ensuring continuity, audience retention, and enhanced engagement.

Consultancy-ready capabilities demonstrated: strategic planning, governance communications, policy writing, platform transitions, capacity building.

Key responsibilities included:

• Strategic Vision: Set priorities, identified opportunities for innovation, and aligned communications with organisational goals.
• Leadership & Coordination: Led staff and consultants while remaining hands-on in delivery.
• Stakeholder Management: Coordinated across teams, governance bodies, and external partners.
• Capacity Building: Designed and embedded tools, frameworks, and processes to support consistent, high-quality communications.