Frank Peters
Frank Peters is the founder and owner of Virtus Communications. For the last 18 years, he managed the Dutch branch of the international PR network Porter Novelli. He has been in the communications profession for almost 30 years. Frank has extensive experience in managing high profile corporate brands and developing corporate communications strategy. His specialties are corporate reputation management, crisis management and issue management.
In recent years Frank has advised organizations such as FrieslandCampina, SNS Reaal, Achmea, KPN, Eneco, Nederlandse Zuivelorganisatie (NZO), LTO Nederland, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, TNO, Albert Heijn, RadboudUMC and various healthcare organizations. He has been rewarded for his advisory work several times with Sabre Awards and Effies, among others.
He is a member of the Advisory Board of SWOCC (Stichting Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Commerciële Communicatie) of the University of Amsterdam and is a former board member of SIRE (Stichting Ideële Reclame) and the Professional Association for Communication (Logeion). He is also a board member of the Fonds Gehandicaptensport.
Frank is the author of the book ‘Reputation under Pressure’ on reputation management and crisis communication. A second book of his was published internationally in late 2015, ‘What are they saying about you? 50 lessons to manage your reputation’ on managing personal reputations. In June 2016, the book ‘Tension around the Boardroom’ about the personal reputation of directors and supervisory directors was published. He wrote this book together with his business partner Eric Heres. In 2017, his book ‘Media Training for Everyone’ was released. At the end of 2018, he published a new book ‘Crisis Communication for Everyone’. Frank teaches at Beeckestijn Business School and Utrecht Business School and is a regular blogger on Adformatie.nl and CustomerTalk.
Eric Heres
Eric Heres is a partner and co-owner of Virtus Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in corporate communications. He was group director of Communications & CSR at Achmea until April 1, 2015. Before that he held similar positions at FrieslandCampina, Wolters Kluwer and Akzo Nobel. He was also responsible for communications at the trade union CNV and worked in regional newspaper journalism (Tubantia).
Eric Heres has extensive experience in building and protecting the reputations of high profile companies and brands. His specialties include corporate reputation management, counseling Boards of Directors, crisis and issue management. He also has extensive experience in complex communication during (inter)national mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations and divestitures. In addition, he has earned his spurs in renewing, professionalizing and streamlining communication departments. Together with his teams, he has won (inter)national awards such as a Sabre Award, Magnet, SponsorRing, Giraffe and the Sijthoff Prize.
International scope
For the implementation of international communications programs, Virtus Communications offers access to the Alison+Partners network. Allison+Partners is a rapidly growing, best-in-class, communications consultancy with 18 offices on three continents.
Targeted cooperation with strategic and specialist partners
Virtus Communications works with a network of complementary consultants in areas such as organizational consulting, crisis management, risk management, cybersecurity, media training, reputation research and online reputation management. They can be deployed for specific assignments based on their expertise.
In practice, Virtus works with, among others:
Hibou: PR agency (media relations, influencer marketing)
De Praktijk: organizational consulting firm for healthcare;
Glenn Schoen / Boardroom@Crisis: expert in the field of risk & security, crisis management and crisis simulations;
LK Networks: international experts in the field of cyber and privacy risk;
Stakeholderwatch: provider of real-time reputation research;
Mediamaze: online reputation management (Google search influencing);
Cesar Moerman: journalist, specializing in media and message training.