Director de Relaciones Gubernamentales y Asuntos Regulatorios, IBM, Madrid

Postgraduate in United States, 1991

Alfonso González-Herrero is Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs for IBM Spain. He is also Director of External Communications for IBM SPGI (Spain, Portugal, Greece & Israel), where he manages a multidisciplinary team of 10-people in 4 different geographies. Under that position, he has led the digital transformation of IBM’s external communications department, implementing numerous media, analyst, and influencer relations programs successfully. Alfonso joined IBM in 1999 and has held a number of local and international communications positions. Prior to IBM, he worked for Burson-Marsteller (Young & Rubicam) as a manager in the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Practice, Spain and Portugal. During that time, he developed public affairs programs in Spain for a number of multinational companies. He began his professional career at the New York office of Hill & Knowlton (WPP Group), as a consultant for a variety of consumer- and industry-oriented organizations. Alfonso holds a B.A. and Ph.D. from the Complutense University of Madrid and an M.A. from Michigan State University in the USA. Currently, he also serves as Regional Coordinator in Spain of the European Association of Communication Directors, EACD, the largest network for communication professionals across Europe. His areas of expertise include issues and crisis management (he's author of the first book published in Spain about the subject, "Marketing preventivo: la comunicación de crisis en la empresa", Ed.Bosch, 1998), corporate comms, public affairs, marketing comms, media relations, digital & social media. He’s a regular speaker at professional and academic programs, as well as a contributor to international journals such as the Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Communications Management, Public Relations Review, and Public Relations Quarterly, among others.