Vice President, Thornley Fallis Communications

Michael O’Connor Clarke has more than twenty years' experience in corporate communications, investor relations and marketing in Europe and North America. Recognized as a pioneer in social media, Michael has been an active blogger since early 2001 and is acknowledged as a leading consultant on the integration of social media approaches within mainstream public relations programs. At Thornley Fallis, Michael’s role is to help TFC clients make the appropriate connections with all of their audiences through both traditional and social media communications campaigns. He has worked both on the agency side and in a number of public and private companies, acting as head of marketing and/or external communications counsel to a wide range of clients in the technology, corporate, financial services and public sectors. His past and current client portfolio includes work for Amazon.ca, AOL Canada, Hitachi, Sharp Electronics, Intel, itemus, Lotus, Compaq, CNW Group, eBay.ca, Travelocity.ca, and many others.

In former roles, Michael was Investor Relations Officer for one of Canada’s most prominent software companies, led worldwide marketing for a large publicly-traded technology firm, was part of a team that took a software startup from zero to IPO in nine months, and ran national practice groups for two of the world’s largest public relations agencies. Michael studied Philosophy at the University of Wales and currently serves on the boards of two Toronto-area technology startups. His personal blog (at http://michaelocc.com) was selected as one of the Top 10 Corporate Marketing Blogs worldwide.

Manager, Social Media, General Motors

Natalie A. Johnson was named manager of Social Media of General Motors Global Technology Group in February 2007 and she is currently located in GM’s corporate offices in Detroit, Michigan. Prior to her current position, she was the Internal Communications manager of GM’s Latin America, Africa and Middle East (LAAM) region, a role she assumed after working as the associate manager for e-business in LAAM. A native of South Florida, Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in Business and a MS in Communications with emphasis in Interactive New Communication Technologies from The Florida State University. She joined GM in April of 2002 with the Vehicle Sales Service and Marketing group in LAAM.

Web Content Specialist, CNW Group

Parker graduated from McGill University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies and went on to live and work in Japan for a year before moving to Australia and graduating from Griffith University in 2007 with a Master of Arts and Media. While in Australia, Parker spent time working for a software company near Brisbane, Australia and also hosted a current affairs program on the Gold Coast’s 105.7 Radio Metro. He joined BlogCampaigning.com (a blog that focuses on PR, Social Media, Video Games, Technology and Politics) in September 2006 as an English language editor and has since become the Site Manager.

Parker now lives in Toronto and works as the Web Content Specialist at CNW Group. In his current role, Parker works to educate CNW clients and staff about social media while developing web strategy for the company.