MARCO opens its 11th owned office, strengthening its EU Affairs business. The new office will be led by Dr. Vassilia Orfanou who has extensive expertise in providing counsel and communication support to EU institutions such as the EU Commission and the European Investment Bank.
Dr. Orfanou is a Greek-American who has lived and worked in New York, Washington DC, Brussels, London, Luxembourg and Brussels. She holds a PhD from the Harvard Kennedy School in the Study of Policy Research Design and has 19 years of experience as a high-level Communications and Project Strategist. Prior to joining MARCO to head up its Brussels bureau, VasDr. Orfanousilia worked for Dynamics SA where she managed over 100 projects across most Directorates of the European Commission. In partnership with Ecorys and Deloitte she also managed over 200 projects, mainly for the European Commission and the European Investment Bank.
The new Brussels bureau is based in Rue Belliard 40 in the EU district and houses a team of Brussels-based EU consultants who work for a wide variety of EU institutions as well as DG COMM. Current EU institutional clients of MARCO include the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Environmental Agency (EEA), the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), StartUp Europe, DG TaxUD and DG COMM.
MARCO is a leading independent global communication consultancy with over 150 consultants in 11 offices on 4 continents. MARCO is the most awarded independent consultancy based in Europe and was recognised last year as the Southern European Agency of the Year by the SABRE Awards. The agency specialises in brand and reputation management and is a global leader in Country Brand Building, sustainability issues and fighting climate emergency.
The agency is lead by Didier Lagae, MARCO’s Founder and CEO. Didier was recently named respectively European and Global PR Professional of the Year by the PR Week and Stevie Awards. Before starting MARCO 18 years ago, Didier held senior positions at Edelman and Weber Shandwick. He was also Global Head of Communications at The Body Shop and Externals Coms Manager at Levi Strauss for the EMEA region. Didier Lagae is also a Climate Leader by the Climate Reality Project of Al Gore, author of the book “A Country Brand, a Branded Country” and President of the Country Brand Awards.
“About 40% of our work consists of accompanying institutional clients in their owned, earned and paid communication needs mostly across Europe and Africa but also in the USA, LATAM and AsiaPac. While lots of campaigns, content development and outreach are carried out by our inhouse team of 150 consultants in 11 offices on 4 continents, MARCO also relies on its MSL network of over 100 offices across the globe. Establishing a constant presence in Brussels made sense for MARCO given the intensity of our work for EU institutions but also to provide better access to our other clients to the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and other EU Institutions. We are thrilled to welcome Vassilia who will lead those efforts for MARCO from our newly set up Brussels bureau.”
Further imminent expansion plans of MARCO include the opening of more offices across Europe and acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa.
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