Internal and employee communications
I plan, write and run the communications that carry a workforce through change.
More than 15 years in employee, leadership and change communications, six of them as a communications manager at KPMG. Today I write and produce for about 3,000 employees at PECO, an Exelon company: town halls, leadership transitions, HR and organizational change, and the channels that reach both the office and the field.
- 15+ yearsin employee, leadership and change communications
- About 3,000employees in my audience at PECO, an Exelon company
- 4 town hallswritten and produced in 2025, one introducing a new CEO
- 6 yearsas a communications manager at KPMG
The questions I get hired to answer
Each question opens the work behind it.
Communications work
PECO and Ansell-
How do we introduce a new CEO to the whole company?
The town hall that handed a company from a retiring CEO to his successor: the run of show, every speaker’s talking points and a live Q&A with both.
See the run of show
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How do we get every employee through a change?
One change taken from the brief to adoption: a stakeholder map, the package managers carry, a message test and results measured by audience.
Walk through the campaign
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How do we reach employees who never sit at a desk?
The channels, the request intake and the yearly plan for a workforce split between people at screens and crews in trucks.
See how the channels work
Tools I built to do the work better
PECO-
How will employees react before we hit send?
A draft runs past a panel of employee roles and comes back with a send decision and specific fixes. It has informed live send decisions.
See a test run
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Did the campaign actually work?
An agent that turns raw analytics exports into a report a manager can read at a glance. Its user presented it at a regional meeting of three utilities.
See what it catches
Pro bono consulting
Six nonprofits through Catchafire since 2025-
How do we get every leader saying the same thing?
Key messages, talking points for three situations and answers to the hard questions, so a volunteer board could speak with one voice.
See the playbook
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How do we tailor one message for very different audiences?
A message framework where the story and the ask stay fixed and the angle changes for each audience.
See what changes
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What is our data actually telling us?
An interactive dashboard that turns 11 years of raw records into findings a one-person team can act on.
See the dashboard
Where I’ve done it
- 2024 to nowPECO, an Exelon companySenior Communications Specialist
Internal communications for about 3,000 employees across the intranet, email, digital signage, town halls and supervisor cascades. Leader remarks and announcements through review up to the vice president.
- 2023 to 2024AnsellCorporate Communications Writer, contract
Led employee communications for the integration of an acquired business, including CEO messages to the combined global workforce. Launched a companywide newsletter.
- 2021 to 2023EY and Edward JonesCommunications and content roles, contract
Ran an editorial calendar across digital platforms at EY. Built the content strategy for an internal SharePoint site at Edward Jones.
- 2019 to 2021Horse for a DayContent Strategist
Led content strategy, SEO and partnerships for a digital brand.
- 2013 to 2019KPMGCommunications Manager
Developed and ran internal and external communications programs for the firm’s advisory and innovation priorities. Wrote executive thought leadership published in Harvard Business Review and CIO.
- 2011 to 2013JCPRContent Strategy Leader
Managed a team of six writers and the day-to-day work of the agency’s content, social media and marketing teams.
Published and recognized
- Harvard Business Review and CIO. Wrote executive thought leadership published in both, at KPMG.
- Financial Advisor and Money Management Executive. Wrote a chief executive’s monthly columns, at JCPR.
- Bronze Telly Award. Conceived, wrote and produced an agency branding campaign that won for online video.
- The Wall Street Journal. Conceived and produced a video campaign for a wealth-management client that the Journal cited as going viral.
About
I’m an internal communications professional who has spent more than 15 years helping large organizations explain themselves to their own people. I spent six of those years as a communications manager at KPMG, and before that I managed a team of six writers at a public relations agency.
From 2021 to 2024 I took contract roles at EY, Edward Jones and Ansell, where I led employee communications for an acquisition. In 2024 I joined PECO, where I write and produce the communications that reach about 3,000 employees, from the CEO’s town hall to the talking points a supervisor reads to a crew at the start of a shift.
I also build AI tools for communications work in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Claude and Gemini. I build them to take on the repeatable parts of the job, with guardrails against made-up content.
- FocusInternal, employee, leadership and change communications
- PlatformsSharePoint, HubSpot, Microsoft 365, Monday.com
- StyleAP style
- EducationBachelor of Fine Arts, Communications, New York University
Contact
- Emailderek@derekbrownportfolio.com
- LocationPhiladelphia. Open to remote roles and to relocating to Texas.
- ResumeRead it here or download the PDF