Red Havas appoints Lawrence Muskitta to head new Public Affairs offering

Red Havas has appointed Lawrence Muskitta to head its newly created Public Affairs offering, designed to help clients navigate increasingly challenging, changing and complex business environments.

As head of public affairs, Muskitta will lead Red’s public affairs offering that spans government relations, stakeholder engagement, patient/consumer advocacy, public behaviour change campaigns, policy monitoring and intelligence gathering, crisis management and strategic partnerships.

Muskitta joins from Facebook, where he spent the past year as public policy manager, stakeholder engagement EU affairs, based in Brussels. Prior to that, he spent two years at BCW Global in roles including head of marketing. Muskitta has managed digital campaigns for major clients including the Australian Greens, Australian Medical Association, Defence South Australia, Energy Consumer Australia and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Says Simone Gupta, CEO Havas PR Australia (responsible for One Green Bean, Red Havas and Organic Pacific): “We are thrilled to have Lawrence launch the Red Havas public affairs offering. His international experience in tech, sustainability and health policy, and his ability to identify trends that are shaping our world is a natural extension to Red Havas corporate communications expertise.

Our goal is to help clients to focus on building and managing long-term stakeholder relationships, navigate institutions and government and constructively engage in policy discussion.

The weakening in trust in government, the rapidly shifting global environment, combined with the power of technology and social media means that organisations and corporations need to support traditional stakeholder relations with peer to peer, citizen and community dialogue. Muskitta’s experience combined with Red Havas’ strong social media strategy expertise means we can provide this integrated digital approach to clients.

He is already adding immense value to new and existing clients, guiding them through complex issues such as Senate inquiries, ACCC investigations and upcoming proposed regulations.”

Muskitta said he was humbled to join Red’s talented team of communication leaders: “I am proud to launch Red’s public affairs team at such a critical time. Global issues like climate change, new technologies and shifting geopolitics are radically shaking the Australian business environment. As industry and governments grapple with these issues, public affairs will become essential to not only corporate reputation, but businesses’ bottom line.

“Our public affairs offering gives our clients a competitive advantage by helping them manage external change and take a leading role in shaping public debate. As this debate moves increasingly online, our team takes a digital-first approach to public affairs, seeing digital communities as central, not just an add-on to the political and media conversation.”