Crisis Comms on the Frontlines: A PR Pro’s Journey in Global Aid
Guest Speaker: Phil Johnstone, FPRINZ
Our first guest of CRUNCH Season Three is Phil Johnstone who is the Strategy & Growth Manager, International Development, for Plant & Food Research.
Phil is a former New Zealand news and political journalist and spent eight years in the 1990s at the BBC in London in roles including Head of Press & PR for BBC Worldwide TV.
This CRUNCH podcast focuses on Phil’s volunteer and contract work around the globe. During the last decade Phil has visited a number of Asian countries to create content for development organisations. He completed two three-month volunteer stints in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake with the IFRC and a global health charity. And in the last two years he has taken leave from his role at Plant & Food Research to do one-month deployments as a lead communicator for World Vision International’s Ukraine and Sudan crisis responses.
Phil Johnstone
GUEST SPEAKER
Phil.Johnstone@plantandfood.co.nz
Phil is a business strategist, communicator and stakeholder relationship builder with a mix of corporate, NGO and public sector experience.
A former New Zealand news and political journalist, he spent 8 years in the 1990s at the BBC in London in roles including Head of Press & PR for BBC Worldwide TV. After returning to New Zealand, he was Corporate Affairs Director at the local subsidiary of Merck & Co and led communications at Auckland Museum and World Vision New Zealand. He served as a Leprosy Mission New Zealand Board member for nine years till 2021.
Phil joined Plant & Food Research in 2018. His writing, podcast and video work is on display at http://www.fromthisland.co.nz – in relation to a Plant & Food Research photo-story exhibition about development impact in Vietnam and Cambodia, exhibited in the NZ Pavilion at World Expo Dubai 2022 and at the 2021 Auckland Festival of Photography.
Over the last decade Phil has visited a number of Asian countries to create content for development organisations. He completed two three-month volunteer stints in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake with the IFRC and a global health charity. And in the last two years he has taken leave from his role at Plant & Food Research to do one-month deployments as a lead communicator for World Vision International’s Ukraine and Sudan crisis responses.
In 2023 Phil was made a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand.
Heather Claycomb
HMC DIRECTOR
Heather Claycomb founded HMC in May 2004 driven by her passion to tell a great story and support Waikato businesses in making a difference. In 2019, her business evolved into a social enterprise which now donates its profits to her family charity, All Good Ventures.
Passionate about the PR industry, Heather has been involved in the PR Institute of NZ (PRINZ) in a regional leadership and governance capacity since 2013. She was elected to the position of Board Chair in May 2022.
Heather leads the team to help clients with crisis and issues management and has developed PR strategies and crisis response related to a wide range of subjects.
Born and educated in the United States, Heather earned her MBA from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA) in 1992 after receiving a Bachelor's degree in Marketing from Shippensburg University (Shippensburg, PA) in 1990. After several years working in sales and marketing with a division of Management Recruiters International, Heather established a marketing communications consultancy in Denver, Colorado before immigrating with her husband to New Zealand in 1999.
When she's not at work or volunteering, she's at her bach in the Coromandel, on the tennis court or golf course.
Natalie Swart
SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER
Natalie has been helping organisations to tell their stories for nearly 20 years and officially joined HMC in January 2025 after a year of supporting the team in a contract capacity.
A born and bred Hamiltonian, Natalie kicked off her career in Australia after university. She cut her teeth as a political speechwriter before moving into public relations, eventually returning to Auckland where she worked for NZ Police in media relations.
She has led in-house corporate communications and marketing content teams and has strong connections across the Waikato across an array of industries which include real estate, education, health, local government and just about everything in between.
Words are Natalie's happy place and she loves the pace and variety of agency life, where she looks after an array of commercial and not-for-profit clients. Highly creative, Natalie loves a good strategy and is the person you want on your team in a crisis or during a large-scale change process.