About Us

One of the most recognized agency heads in the world, James is global CEO of HAVAS Red, a global micronetwork of merged media agencies and is global chairman of the HAVAS PR Global Collective that comprises 1,300 consultants across 40+ agencies. Before taking on his global role, James was group CEO responsible for PR agencies across the Asia-Pacific region between 2011-2018. He advised brands including AWS, Capgemini, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Mondelēz, Novartis, Toyota, Yahoo! and the Australian government. He also served as chief commercial officer for HAVAS Group Australia/New Zealand, working across advertising, PR and media.​

Under his leadership, HAVAS Red transformed into a regional powerhouse of creativity and one of the most awarded agencies in the Asia-Pacific region, winning multiple Agency of the Year titles. In 2017, PR Asia named James Agency Head of the Year at its annual awards show, and PR Awards Asia named him Asia-Pacific PR Agency Head of the Year. That year, he was also the Australian PR juror for the Cannes Lions Festival, the second time he has performed the role, having previously done it in 2013. In 2008, at the age of just 28, he won the coveted PRCA’s Consultant of the Year (U.K.) and the same year was named International CSR Leader by PR News USA at its All Stars Awards. In 2016, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, one of the youngest ever admitted.​

James joined the HAVAS Group in 2011 from the U.K. Previously, he was managing director at international agency Grayling, where he led international accounts including BT, HSBC, Sony, Jaguar and Land Rover.

Shane Russell is Chief Executive Officer of HAVAS Red Australia, one of the country’s most awarded PR, Social and Experiential agencies.

In a 20-year career that has spanned both Australia and the United States, Shane has built a reputation for leading high-growth teams and brands that aren’t afraid of taking creative risks.

For a decade prior to joining Red in April 2023, Shane served as Executive Vice President at New York-based 5W Public Relations, helping it become one of the largest independent firms in America. As an agency leader Shane was instrumental in driving the company’s record multi-year expansion, helping win and retain household-name brands and disruptive startups, manage group operations, and provide senior counsel and strategic direction to clients across a diversity of consumer and B2B verticals.

Prior to 5W, Shane was head of global PR at Shutterstock, where he managed external agency relationships and helped craft the company’s product and international communications program.

At Red, Shane is focused on elevating the agency’s merged media offerings and leveraging his deep operational expertise to support clients as they navigate various growth stages, brand and campaign launches, corporate and financial milestones, issues and more.

Shane launched his career in his homeland of Australia in 2004, representing some of the country’s largest real estate groups and operating his own generalist PR consultancy before relocating to New York in 2012. Shane holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Communication from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.

Outside of work, Shane dedicates much of his waking and sleeping hours to his two young daughters and travel.

Laura is a Managing Partner of the Consumer and Brand team at HAVAS Red. With over 16 years in the industry, Laura has extensive expertise in implementing strategic PR, social media, and marketing campaigns.

Having worked across brand, travel, food and beverage and lifestyle accounts including Dubai Economy And Tourism, FIJI Water, Snapchat, Samsung, Scoot Airlines, Destination NSW, Tourism Australia, working on the Restaurant Australia campaign, Crown Resorts, Lion, Margaret River Gourmet Escape, Four Pillars, Langham Hospitality Group, Accolade Wines, Warwick Hotels and Resorts, Barilla, KFC, Carlton United Breweries, Connoisseur Ice Cream Peters Ice Cream, Singapore Airlines, McDonald’s, booking.com, Tourism NT, Kellogg, The Royal Commission for AlUla(RCU), Virgin Voyages, United Airlines, Unilever and Merlin Entertainment Group.

Laura has a solid understanding of global strategic consultancy and development of integrated campaigns for multi-market implementation. With unsurpassable contacts and strong relationships within the travel, beverage, hospitality, food, news and lifestyle media space, Laura loves working to develop and execute all aspects of public outreach campaigns to increase media exposure, support strategic marketing initiatives and brand development.

As Commercial Managing Director, APAC, Steve’s remit includes M&A and commercial partnerships in order to strengthen the HAVAS Group offering in the region. He’s additionally tasked with leading HAVAS Blvd agency as its Managing Director.

With 20 years in the industry, he’s a leading voice in the creation of insight-led communication campaigns, which blend earned, shared and owned media.

Steve’s resume includes founding Chieftain Communications (acquired in 2014), leading Making Waves Australia and driving DDB Australia’s PR, experiential and sponsorship division, Mango.

Steve frequently speaks at government and industry events and has been a judge at numerous industry awards…he’s also won a bunch of them along the way (Spikes, D&AD, AdNews, CommsCon, PRIA, B&T, SABRE, Clios, PR Awards Asia, AGDA, Mumbrella).

Steve has had the privilege of having worked with many leading brands, including Toyota, Lexus, Nestlé, Samsung, Telstra, Tigerair, Coca-Cola, and eBay, to name (brag!) a few.

Stuart has extensive experience across sectors and continents including, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK where he has spent the last 16 years of his career fine tuning his strategic skills in helping brands develop their content, digital and social offering to drive growth and become better storytellers.

With a career that spans working both client and agency side across travel, education, FMCG, tech, transport, health and QSR on brands such as Celebrity Cruises, Etihad, Emirates, Booking.com, McDonald’s, Shell and NIVEA.

Nic is managing partner of HAVAS Red’s Health & Wellness practice with over 25 years’ experience in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, corporate communications and crisis and issues management.

As a communications, reputation and engagement advisor specialising in healthcare and specialist medical services, in consulting and in-house roles, her experience includes corporate communications, marketing and public relations. Nic has a proven ability to connect stakeholders to support an organisation’s business goals. Her experience covers: corporate communications, media relations, messaging, issues and crisis management, investor relations, internal and external communication, and reputation brand management. Her passion for advocacy has been the cornerstone of her healthcare communications approach.

Nic leads the teams work for patient advocacy organisations, healthcare professional organisations, private and public health services as well as many pharmaceutical clients developing clients’ communications strategy, narratives and tailored messaging for ongoing needs, crisis and issues scenarios to deliver effective programs that achieve results.

Nic led the global public affairs and marketing team for a specialist global fertility services organisation for 16 years, until mid-2020, responsible for corporate and brand reputation strategy, aligning marketing, communications and business development performance across the organisation’s operations in Australia, Europe and Singapore. Using the power of storytelling she built the organisation’s brand profile and thought leadership position by empowering and amplifying the profiles of the CEO, Medical Director and other ELT members. A consumer driven communications strategy complemented by a referral engagement network was responsible for transforming IVF from a research based medical/scientific treatment rarely talked about publicly, to normalising the need for fertility care in the broader community through patient advocacy and bipartisan government support.

Kate is the Managing Partner of HAVAS Blvd, a Brand Experience agency which is made up of over 22 communications and production specialists, including Photographers, Designers, Video Producers, Event Managers, Digital services as well as traditional PR account service and speciality writers. She is additionally tasked with the role of Chief Client Officer at HAVAS Red.

With over 15 years’ experience in the industry, starting in Experiential Marketing before moving to PR and Events, Kate joined HAVAS Red in early 2017 when her previous agency merged with Red.

Kate is skilled in management, team leadership, financial management, business development, strategic planning and risk mitigation. Kate is results-driven, commercially astute and champions the agency’s diverse culture

Kate has a history in building and leading communications, PR, and marketing teams and organisations. Combining creativity, storytelling and technology to bring campaigns to life and create meaningful experiences for consumers.

Kate is also a board director of the Australian institute of Motor Sport Safety (AIMSS), with a specific brief to provide PR and communications expertise. AIMSS is a not-for-profit organisation, established by Motorsport Australia as the peak body for motor sport safety and related research. It is directly linked to a global initiative to reduce road trauma.

Kate has created campaigns for leading brands including, Toyota, Lexus, Veritas, Symantec, Hino and the FCAI.

A strategic communication leader with over 20 years in the public relations industry, Myrna has worked extensively across the Global, APAC and Australian communications landscape. She has held multiple and diverse leadership roles in the communications industry, bringing valuable perspective and insight to multi-stakeholder organisations, helping them navigate their voice and reputation in increasingly complex environments.

She is recognised for leading high performing agency and in house teams in the fast-changing sphere of technology innovation and corporate comms.

Underpinned by a focus on driving business impact, Myrna covers a span of strategic communications expertise across the innovation, corporate, health, auto and consumer sectors, providing leadership counsel, communications strategy nd planning, brand storytelling, crisis and issues management, narrative, and messaging programs as well as employee comms. She is also passionate about bringing heart to the vital area of diversity and inclusion comms.

Well versed in the discipline of creating pathways for brands to engage meaningfully with their audience, her communications experience includes some of the world’s leading innovation brands; Philips Global, Apple, Telstra, Optus, TomTom, Fujitsu, Microsoft, Canon, LG, Bose, Motorola, Dimension Data amongst many others.