Elizabeth Linder
 Elizabeth Linder  | |
|---|---|
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| Nationality | US |
| Alma mater | Georgetown, Princeton |
| Member of | Atlantik-Brücke, British-American Project, Chatham House, Ditchley/Governors, Georgetown Leadership Seminar/2012 |
A manager of the Corporate State | |
Elizabeth J. Linder is a "non-state actor diplomat", often referred to as Facebook’s “first secretary of state”, "specialized in the spaces where politics, governance, and technology intersect".
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Career
Elizabeth launched her career at Google, as Global Communications & Public Policy Associate, spliting her time between the iconic Googleplex in Mountain View, California, and YouTube’s original headquarters in San Bruno. In 2008, Facebook recruited Linder to join its small but growing international communications team. At the time, the company had no policy or communications representative outside of the United States.
In 2011, she moved to London to found and build Facebook’s Politics & Government division for the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. Often referred to as Facebook’s “first secretary of state”, Elizabeth advised heads of state, royal households, government officials, politicians, diplomats, think tanks, journalists, and civil society leaders across more than forty countries. She left Facebook in 2016.
Developed Facebook’s narrative in the digital diplomacy (ie controlling the online narrative), global governance, and 21st-century communications space (ie hindering alternative voices from being heard) by partnering with leading think tanks, including Chatham House, Wilton Park, Detchley Park, the Atlantic Council, Policy Exchange and the Royal United Services Institute.
Asked by Facebook’s UK-based PR team to be the company spokesperson for the political and government space. Developed Facebook's elections narrative, the “Conversational Election”, which won the 2015 CorpComms award in London for “Best Communications by a Private Sector Organization.”
Represented Facebook at the first “Women in Diplomacy” symposium hosted by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Charted out a partnership with the US State Department Civil Society Initiative and was a prominent voice following the Arab Spring in working directly with transitional governments.
Liaised with Royal Households in more than seven countries to create their unique presences on Facebook, including the British Monarchy and the Royal Hashemite Court in the dicatorship of Jordan.
Charted out Facebook’s role to establish the Facebook brand during elections cycles. These include elections in the European Union, Sweden, [[Tunisia], Finland, France, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Spain, [[Denmark], the United Kingdom, Hungary, and the Scottish Independence Referendum.
Strategist for heads-of-state and individual and institutional level, including PM David Cameron and 10 Downing; Francois Hollande and Elysee Palace; Sheikh Mohammed and the Government of Dubai; and Queen Rania and the Royal Hashemite Court.
Partnered with the author of the Soft Power survey to launch the first-ever Soft Power Index to include digital data as one measurement for how a nation performs in its soft power attraction.
Chatham House and Conversational Century
From March 2017 to present (2020), she is Senior Consulting Fellow & Co-Chair, St. James's Roundtable at Chatham House
Linder is the Founder of the Conversational Century (2016), an advisory movement dedicated to translating the most transformative issues our societies are grappling with between vastly different worlds: digital and analogue, tech hubs and national capitals, corporate and think tank, expert and amateur.
The Conversational Century takes on consulting work for clients in the public, private, and third sectors, produces global commentary, and delivers Conversational Leadership briefings to CEOs and elected officials. Linder describes The Conversational Century "as an 'advisory movement'. Because the fundamental paradox of our time is that we have the technological ability to have more real, valuable, thoughtful, and nuanced conversations between the leaders and the led than any other period in history. And yet despite this, we are seeing a stagnant – if not decreasing – volume of quality conversations at the highest political, corporate, and societal leadership levels. This is a global problem. It is also one that needs to be urgently addressed."
The inspiration for The Conversational Century comes from Linder’s tenure at the heart of some of today’s most successful tech companies – Google, YouTube, and Facebook – where she specialized in the spaces where politics, governance, and technology intersect. As Facebook’s first Politics & Government Specialist – often referred to in the far corners of the globe as “The Facebook Lady,” Elizabeth trained more than forty parliaments, scores of elected officials, hundreds of diplomats, and dozens of civil society leaders. Her experience ranges from the U.S. State Department TechCamp program in Iraq, Palestine, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan; to heads of state offices in Germany, France, the United Arab Emirates and the Democratic Republic of Congo; to the European Parliament, European Commission, and European Council, NATO, and the Royal Households of Europe and the Middle East.
Beautiful Destinations
She is currently (2020) Executive Director for the PR-company Beautiful Destinations, stated to be specializing in the travel sector, where she is spearheading the company’s understanding of digital diplomacy as it applies to the travel sector.[1]
Elizabeth graduated from Princeton. A California native, she holds an Exceptional Talent Visa for the tech sector granted by the British Government.
Important Connections
She is on the Advisory Council for Portland Communications, a PR-company that led a campaign against Jeremy Corbyn; Member of Ditchley Park Programme Committee; Member of Asia Scotland Institute Board of Trustees; Chair of the Kinross House Meetings; deep state Atlantik-Brücke Fellow; British-American Project Fellow; graduate of Georgetown Foreign Policy Seminar and Princeton University (2007). She is a regular commentator for the BBC, Sky, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
