Gary McKeown
Public Affairs Consultant
Gary is a Consultant with Stratagem having joined the company in 2008.
He provides expert advice to a range of clients including the Energy Saving Trust, the League Against Cruel Sports, AES Kilroot, Value Cabs, fonaCAB, the British Wind Energy Association and the Irish Wind Energy Association.
Gary is also involved in delivering the Slugger O'Toole Political Awards and Stratagem's annual joint conference with the CBI, and heads-up the publicity programmes for these initiatives. In addition, he provides public relations and new media expertise and monitors developments in the field of online communication. At Stratagem, Gary also directs the company's corporate communications programme.
Gary recently worked on the redevelopment of the Stratagem website, which integrates the latest technological innovations including an interactive constituency map and live Twitter feed.
Gary also works on delivering training with Stratagem. He has lectured in Poland on high level advocacy, and has provided expert advice to people in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe on how to work with government and improve their lobbying skills.
Gary has previously worked for a number of organisations including the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Home Office. He has experience in a broad range of fields including crisis management, political communication, new media, internal communication, media relations, campaigning and copywriting.
He graduated from Queen's University, Belfast with an LLB Honours Degree in Law and Politics in 2003, and then received a Master's Degree in Newspaper Journalism from the University of Ulster in 2005. For his Master's dissertation, he studied and analysed media coverage of political parties. Gary has also received the Diploma of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Gary is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and sits on its Northern Ireland Committee. He is also an alumnus of Boston College's Irish Institute Programme for Young Professionals in Media Communications, and is a Common Purpose graduate.