The President’s 2025 New Year Address
A Celebration of 25 years of Global Alliance and our Profession
1st January 2025
2025 marks Global Alliance’s Silver Jubilee Anniversary - a significant milestone that marks a quarter of a century - 25 years of success, growth, and resilience… welcome to Global Alliance.
Friends and colleagues, it’s that time again when we reflect on the year ending and look forward to the 12 months ahead.
We have lived through a quarter of this 21st Century!
2024 has seen lots of turbulence around the world and lots of rapid change.
What the year has also seen is lots of amazing work in public relations and communications around the world.
Our profession, which is all of you reading this, has stood up…in defence of truth…in defence of accuracy…. and in defence of fairness.
In an era of rampant dis- and mis-information, we have been front and centre making the case for responsible communication.
With Artificial Intelligence playing an ever-greater part in our lives and work, we have stood up for using the power of AI for good, rather than harm.
This fight continues every day. What I see when I meet colleagues from around the world is a determination to follow and push further for the highest of standards.
Global Alliance continues to work for you. What our 360,000 members in over 160 countries all have in common is a commitment to learning and a mandate to act ethically and lead responsibly.
At a time when our world is grappling with multiple devastating conflicts and a climate emergency, our work has never been more important.
Reflecting on another year, what I am most proud of is how we have become a truly global ‘Alliance’.
We are now more reflective than ever of the profession.
All of this is only possible because we have strong Regional Councils.
These six groups and the Board of Directors which has doubled in size to almost 30 are the bedrock of Global Alliance.
If our regional councils and board are the bedrock, our members are the lifeblood of our alliance.
Given this, it has been great to see a more than doubling in our membership as a growing number of allies join our mission.
We know that part of what attracts and retains members is the access we provide to global training and development programmes.
Recently, we teamed up with the Museum of Public Relations in New York to create an online members history of public relations.
Our new Academic and Research Council is continuing to do very important work, focused on global standards, accreditation and certification.
We have published several recent Policy and Research documents. Including new editions of ‘Approaching the Future’; ‘PR & Communications Trends and Insights from Around the World’ and the global ‘Principles for Ethical & Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence’.
Our work in the training and education field is something I am particularly proud of, as it is constantly growing our reach and influence.
It also allows us contribute to the talent pipeline so that our profession will have even better leaders in the future than it does today.
We will continue to support members around the world with millions of euro worth of free Education, Training and Development programmes.
We’ve led the professional forwarded by recently launching the world’s first Public Relations & Leadership University, with our colleagues in the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations.
The World PR & Communication Awards go from strength to strength.
Our recent World Public Relations Forum, running across four days was attended by over 1,400 delegates from across 22 countries worldwide, with 77 international speakers, Government Ministers, the United Nations special Envoy, and a key note address on-behalf of the President of the Republic of Indonesia.
As you’re aware, Global Alliance is continuing to increase our dialogue with the United Nations who we met in New York, pressing the case for an 18th Sustainable Development Goal, centred on Responsible Communication.
We also presented the strongest of cases to the Association of South East Asian Nations, Secretary-General. And at Global Alliance, we won’t stop there!
We are also engaging with the African Union, World Health Organisation, European Commission, Southern Common Market, World Bank and national governments around the world.
Unfortunately, in a year of many elections around the world, we saw an avalanche of dis and mis-information.
This all makes it more important that we use our talents for good, and that when we speak, we do so truthfully.
We are the voice of those who can’t speak out;
The conscience of business and government;
The guardians of scientific facts.
So, step up and lead.
Be a trusted source of information.
Always remember, responsible communication starts with responsible people.
So Now…please….go play your part!
I’m Justin Green, your President of Global Alliance,
Thank you.
Prof. Justin Green