As part of a drive for continuous improvement of ethical standards in PR globally, the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) has named Christina Forsgård, founder of Netprofile, as its inaugural ethics chair.

She assumes the role ahead of ICCO’s annual ‘Power of Ethics’ campaign in September and will continue to drive progress in this area beyond the one-month campaign. The move comes as part of an ICCO strategy to work with other sectors to focus on educating the public, businesses and PR professionals in regard to identifying and combating misinformation and disinformation, while aiding identification of reliable information and trusted sources.

Forsgård is an experienced PR and marcom leader, entrepreneur and the founder of PR award-winning consultancy Netprofile in Finland. She takes an active role as a marcom technology angel investor, has appeared on several top influencer lists, and was awarded a National Security Award for designing a cyber security and disinformation training course.

Forsgård says, “We acknowledge that our profession comes with great powers of influence, therefore we have responsibility to combat disinformation and fake news. Not because it’s important, but because it is absolutely vital for humanity. I am honoured to act as the first ICCO ethics chair globally and fortify the power of ethics in communications with ICCO leaders.”

Elise Mitchell, president of ICCO, and founder and chairman of Mitchell, adds, “Ethics is one of ICCO’s top strategic priorities. Christina’s expertise and leadership will help ICCO continue to elevate the global conversation about ethics and promote professional principles such as advocacy, honesty and transparency. I am delighted to serve alongside her.”

ICCO works to raise professional and ethical standards of the public relations industry internationally and the campaign marks two years since the Bell Pottinger expulsion from PRCA on 4 September 2017 that caused shockwaves throughout the profession as well as the creation of ten globally binding principles, agreed across 66 countries in the Helsinki Declaration, that champions the #PowerofEthics.