Ian Messer to lead communication training for Edelman Japan

With stints at Bloomberg News and Dow Jones Newswires on his early CV, Messer has trained spokespeople in a wide range of industries, including finance, automotive, IT, healthcare, and luxury goods. He was most recently senior vice president at Weber Shandwick in Tokyo, where he launched a new practice team. Prior to that, he spent six years at PRAP Japan, where he worked on campaigns for shareholder proxy contests and large mergers and acquisitions.

“I’ve been in the PR business here for quite some time, so I have quite a lot of knowledge about Japan, and the unique market here,” Messer said. “And prior to that I was a journalist for the international wires. And I think that background really helps when you’re preparing executives for media engagement.”

Messer said his work will involve preparing US and European executives, politicians, and other public figures to interact with the Japan media—and vice versa.

“Especially for corporate leaders from western institutions, they really need to be given an overview of that landscape in order to understand, for example, why they are being asked questions they might not expect to be asked,” Messer said. Likewise, Japanese executives might need role-playing exercises to help them gain comfort with the more adversarial stance taken by US and European media representatives.

“We are extremely pleased to have someone of Ian’s caliber joining our Japan team,” said Ross Rowbury, president of Edelman Japan. “His experience as both a journalist and public relations professional will ensure that our communications training offering truly helps clients in proactively interacting with all forms of the media to maximise positive coverage.”