John Russell is the founder of North Head, part of the Advocom Global Network. North Head focuses on public affairs and corporate communications services, located in Beijing and Brussels. John 
previously headed the public affairs and corporate communication practice for Weber Shandwick.
John is a strategic communications and public affairs specialist with a China focus, supporting MNCs facing challenges operating in China and Chinese companies moving into developed markets, but encountering hurdles and push-back. John counsels on political, public policy and reputational challenges of M&A, trade cases, anti-trust, crisis and restructuring. Clients include Chinese agencies and western governments. North Head has offices in Beijing and Brussels.
The consultancy was formed to respond to the growing demand for counsel and insights on integrating public and corporate affairs in the highly competitive markets of Asia, and supporting Chinese and other Asian companies in their reputation management and corporate communications on the global stage.
Before forming North Head in 2010 John was EVP Asia Pacific at Weber Shandwick in Beijing, responsible for public affairs and corporate communications in 12 markets throughout the region. Until 2005, he was CEO of Weber Shandwick, Brussels and head of public affairs for Europe. For 10 years until 1999, John was MD of the AmCham EU in Brussels. He still maintains ties with a broad range of contacts in Brussels and Washington. John is on the advisory board of the Chinese Business Leaders Forum at Renmin University, Beijing. He has lived professionally in the UK, Germany, the Middle East (Egypt and Israel) and South East Asia (Malaysia and Singapore) in addition to assignments in Australia.
