Earth-People

OgilvyEarth is a sustainability communications practice – from empowering employees about the environment to promoting green products to advising on environmental public policy.

Several of our people are especially involved and committed to OgilvyEarth’s aim to use our counsel to shrink business’ footprint on the planet while still growing its profitability. They lead our efforts to help companies do today’s business in a way that leaves a positive legacy for tomorrow.

One of the interesting aspects of our team is that it reflects our view that providing good sustainability counsel requires strong understanding of often complex environmental issues. That’s why our team is bolstered by people with not only communications but technical backgrounds too.

Sarah Cruickshank, Managing Director

Sarah Cruickshank is the co-founder and Managing Director of Ogilvy Earth. She has fifteen years’ experience in developing and implementing complex communications campaigns on behalf of government, business and the community and since joining Ogilvy/Parker & Partners in 2002 has led a number of flagship (and award winning) client accounts including the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, WMC Resources, Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia, Taskforce on Care Costs and Bell Shakespeare.

Sarah’s particular expertise is in the public policy issues and challenges facing Australian industry, in particular the inextricable link between business operations and the increasing social and environmental considerations driven by community and government. Since establishing Ogilvy Earth in 2007, Sarah has led sustainability-focused projects across the government, business and not-for-profit sectors with current and recent clients including Woolworths, Origin Energy, Veolia, Coca-Cola South Pacific, The Climate Institute and the Australian Government. Effective advocacy, third party stakeholder relations, media and issues management have been core to each of these campaigns.

Teljya Oka-Pregel, Practice Director

As a Practice Director Teljya brings a decade of corporate, not-for-profit and academic expertise to OgilvyEarth’s sustainability offering. She works with clients to leverage sustainability strategies and programs to create business and brand value delivering practical solutions and sound advice to public and private sector organisations seeking to turn environmental and social sustainability challenges into organisational and business opportunities.

Teljya specialises in developing communications programs that achieve defined outcomes through effective culture change, stakeholder engagement and organisational behaviour.  She started her career providing sustainable strategies to Interface Inc, the world’s largest modular carpet manufacturer and green business leader.  Since then, she has advised and developed programs for a range of multinational companies across the aviation, construction and retail consumer goods sectors.

Teljya draws on her international experience and multidisciplinary academic training to create holistic solutions with a systems perspective. She has worked and studied in Canada, France, the United States and Australia. Teljya holds a Combined Honours Bachelor of Arts in International Studies & Sociology and a Masters in Environmental Science & Law.  She is LEED Accredited Professional (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) with the United States Green Business Council.

Kathryn Torpy, Sustainability Strategist, OgilvyEarth

Kathryn Torpy leads Ogilvy’s B2B/Corporate practice, overseeing a portfolio of B2B; corporate reputation and sustainability-focused programs for organisations including Coca-Cola South-Pacific. She has experience in developing and implementing communications campaigns for organisations within the clean technology and energy efficiency space, including Sydney-based energy management and control solutions vendor mySmart CTI.

Kathryn has also led corporate-reputation building programs including for Microsoft Australia and Intel Corporate (Asia-Pacific). She leads the Australian media relations program for the Carbon Disclosure Project and has previously inputted on strategy for the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism and the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.

She has a strong focus on strategy and messaging development for media relations programs, and advises on editorial direction for research reports and white papers. Under the OgilvyEarth banner, she has also been involved with programs for Woolworths and The Climate Institute. Kathryn’s background is in media – she began her career as a journalist for News Limited in Queensland. She has also worked in a range of agency roles in the UK and USA, including on a range of non-profits such as UNICEF.

Sam North, Media and Issues Management

Sam North, former Managing Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and Sun-Herald, is currently the Media Director of Ogilvy PR Australia. He brings more than 30 years of experience across the fields of media and management to the role.

As Media Director, Sam provides senior counsel on media engagement, crisis and issues management, and media coaching.

Sam’s career spans 30 years and he has engaged, either as a writer, interviewer or manager, with every Prime Minister from Gough Whitlam to the present. Prior to his role as Managing Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and Sun Herald, he worked as Chief of Staff during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and represented Fairfax on the Australian Press Council. Before joining Fairfax, he worked as an on-camera reporter for television news. Since joining Ogilvy early this year, Sam has conducted a large number of media training sessions for people from all levels of business – from the most senior CEO through to corporate affairs personnel and entry level media officers.