Michael von Herff, senior vice president, senior partner, and regional director Fleishman-Hillard Canada

Michael von Herff is senior vice president, senior partner, and regional director at Fleishman-Hillard Canada. Based in Ottawa, he leads Fleishman-Hillard’s federal public affairs and communications practice advising many of Canada’s leading public and private sector organizations. He also has overall responsibility for Fleishman-Hillard Vancouver and Fleishman-Hillard Canada Research, as well as chairing the Fleishman-Hillard public affairs practice in Canada.

Since joining Fleishman-Hillard more than 15 years ago, Mr. von Herff has worked with clients in a wide range of industry sectors including transportation, mining and metals, chemicals, and automotive, as well as communications and distribution. He has particular experience in national and international campaigns requiring the integration of government relations, public policy, and strategic communications expertise. Although based in Ottawa for many years, Mr. von Herff has also worked in Fleishman-Hillard’s offices in Brussels (1993-1995) and London (2000). During his career he has overseen the development and implementation of some of the largest public affairs campaigns both in Canada and across Europe. The results of these efforts have included helping a client to overcome well-funded opposition to ensure the passage of controversial fuels legislation, assisting a client to shape the federal government’s approach to a key security issue in the transportation sector, securing federal Cabinet approval to maintain a strategically significant tariff, and convincing competition authorities to intervene to help a client put an end to the predatory pricing practices of a much larger competitor. He has also managed corporate communications challenges ranging from strikes and plant closures, to product recalls and corporate governance crises.

He was also responsible for the development of Fleishman-Hillard’s proprietary organizational effectiveness tool, known as COMM (Communication Organization Maturity Model). The COMM methodology enables Fleishman-Hillard clients to rigorously evaluate the performance of their own communications or public affairs function and determine a strategy and structure for delivering optimal performance.

Mr. von Herff holds a B.A. (Hons.) in history and German and an M.A., both from McGill University. Fluent in German, he studied at Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaet in Heidelberg, Germany, and is a graduate of the Omnicom Senior Management Program. Outside of his work with Fleishman-Hillard, Mr. von Herff serves as president of SOS Children’s Villages Canada, the Canadian affiliate of the world’s leading international children’s charity providing permanent homes for orphaned, abandoned, and destitute children in more than 130 countries. He is also a past director of the Government Relations Institute of Canada and has lectured on public affairs and public policy issues at universities, think tanks, and research institutes in Canada and Europe.