Senior Communications Manager — Corporate, Brand & Change Communications

I help organizations communicate clearly during complexity — repositioning, transformation, migration, and crisis. 9 years in global fintech. Native English, C2 German. Frankfurt-based.


About

Black and white photo of a young man with glasses, short hair, beard, and a friendly smile, wearing a denim jacket, with arms crossed.

I'm a senior communications professional with nearly a decade of experience shaping messaging, positioning, and editorial strategy in a global technology and financial services environment.

Most recently at AirPlus International (Lufthansa Group), I led communications across a €1M brand repositioning, a large-scale technology migration affecting 55,000+ clients, and high-stakes crisis response — advising at board level while also doing the hands-on writing, editing, and cross-functional coordination that makes strategy real.

I work best in environments where complexity is high, clarity matters, and communications connects directly to business outcomes. I'm now looking for a senior communications role — hands-on, strategic, ideally hybrid or remote — in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main area or globally.

What I bring:

  • Corporate, brand, change, and crisis communications across 13 markets and 7 languages

  • Executive messaging and stakeholder alignment at board level

  • Editorial leadership — building standards, mentoring writers, governing quality

  • Bilingual fluency (EN native / DE C2) with American-German cultural perspective

  • Growing practical fluency in AI-assisted communications workflows


Selected Work

01

Brand Repositioning & Launch (€1M, 13 markets)

Theme: Executive Influence · Brand Voice · Strategic Alignment

Context: AirPlus International needed to reposition from a legacy payments brand to a modern fintech identity — across 13 countries, 7 languages, and every customer-facing channel.

What I did:

  • Advised the executive board on brand voice, narrative architecture, and messaging principles

  • Unified ~40 fragmented product pages into 17 core pages across 13 country websites

  • Wrote and shaped launch communications including customer and partner emails, social content, and internal enablement materials

  • Led Brand Academies for ~250 employees and coordinated brand portal rollout

Results:

  • Customer mailing: 29.3% open rate, 4.1% CTR (vs. 25–30% / 2.5% benchmarks)

  • Partner mailing: 33.4% open rate, 5.9% CTR

  • New contact forms: +51% submissions (Nov YoY), +67% (Dec YoY)

  • Social launch: +131% impressions, +107% page views vs. monthly average

  • Brand portal: 144,000+ asset downloads within months

  • LinkedIn follower base: +15%

  • 111 leads captured at GBTA launch event, with major prospects (Continental, KPMG, Siemens, adidas)

02

Change Communications for Technology Migration (55,000+ clients)

Theme: Risk · Trust · Adoption · Change Management

Context: A major platform migration affecting 55,000+ corporate clients carried significant risk of confusion, churn, and trust erosion. Communications needed to be carefully staged across customer-facing, internal, and executive channels.

What I did:

  • Led narrative strategy and stakeholder alignment across product, customer teams, leadership, and communications

  • Framed messaging around continuity, transparency, and risk mitigation

  • Designed escalation and contingency messaging frameworks

  • Supported leadership with decision framing during high-pressure moments

Results:

  • Escalation volumes remained below forecast throughout rollout

  • Consistent messaging across touchpoints reduced reactive decision-making

  • Customer trust indicators stabilized during the transition

03

Crisis Communications (Board-level advisory)

Theme: Judgment Under Pressure · Reputation · Risk Management

Context: As a member of the Crisis Board, I advised senior leadership on messaging during time-sensitive, reputationally critical situations where communication and risk were inseparable.

What I did:

  • Evaluated tradeoffs between transparency, legal risk, and stakeholder trust

  • Designed response structures to prevent reactive or inconsistent messaging

  • Provided leadership with framing that enabled calm, credible, and defensible decisions

Outcome: Crisis responses became more consistent and deliberate, reducing reputational volatility and increasing leadership confidence in high-pressure situations.

04

Thought Leadership & Editorial Strategy

Theme: Intellectual Authority · Market Narrative · Credibility

Context: AirPlus needed to shift from promotional content to credible industry commentary — engaging senior, enterprise, and decision-making audiences in a regulated industry.

What I did:

  • Designed editorial strategy centered on analysis, data, and forward-looking perspectives

  • Elevated content from product messaging to market interpretation

  • Established voice and editorial standards for consistency across markets

  • Content frequently reused in sales enablement, client presentations, and executive briefings

Outcome: Shifted audience perception from vendor messaging to credible market authority. Contributed to 15% growth in LinkedIn follower base and increased executive participation in authored content.

05

Editorial Team Leadership

Theme: Leadership · Standards · Culture

Context: As content volume and strategic importance grew, the organization needed stronger quality standards and editorial governance.

What I did:

  • Functionally led a team of writers, setting editorial standards and narrative principles

  • Introduced review and feedback structures that balanced autonomy with accountability

  • Mentored team members to move from task execution toward strategic thinking

Outcome: Reduced revision cycles, fewer late-stage escalations, and earlier involvement of the writing team in strategic initiatives. The team evolved from a service function into a trusted strategic partner.


Testimonials

  • "Cullen has a rare ability to cut straight to the core of a narrative. He quickly understands what truly matters in a message, asks the right questions, and turns even the most challenging or technical content into clear, relevant value for the client."

    -Nani Lizana, Lead Global B2C Marketing, Airzone Control

  • "Played a key role in our repositioning by defining and communicating brand values and authentically representing the brand voice."

    —AirPlus | Lufthansa Group | SEB Bank

  • "An exceptionally sharp mind, solving problems as soon as they appeared."

    —IMC International

  • "Impressive skill and thoughtful originality, which he coupled with rigorous research to quickly assume a specialist voice."

    —H zwo B Kommunikations


Experience

  • Career Break – Family & Professional Development

    May 2025 – Present

    Primary parenting for two young children after a planned departure from AirPlus International. Completed DeepLearning.AI coursework on AI strategy. Deepened practical fluency with AI-assisted communications workflows (Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity).

  • Lufthansa Group | AirPlus International

    Senior Communications Manager · Apr 2023 – Apr 2025

    Led strategic communications and editorial leadership across a global fintech organization operating in 13 countries and 7 languages. Advised the executive board on brand voice during a €1M repositioning, directed communications for a 55,000+ client technology migration, served on the Crisis and Innovation Boards, and functionally led a team of writers.

    Communications Manager · Feb 2019 – Mar 2023

    Managed global thought leadership content, editorial strategy, and cross-channel messaging for corporate payments and technology audiences. Developed content frameworks and editorial guidelines across marketing, product, and internal communications.

  • IMC International Marketing Communications

    Communications Specialist · Nov 2017 – Jan 2019

    Strategic writing and communications consulting for technology, science, and public-sector clients including Volkswagen AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, and Schott AG. Executive communications and speeches for board-level stakeholders.

  • H zwo B Kommunikations

    Communications Associate · Sep 2016 – Oct 2016

    Product communications and commercial scripts for technology leaders including Mettler-Toledo and Palo Alto Networks.


Skills & Tools

Communications

Corporate, brand & repositioning, change & transformation, crisis, internal, thought leadership, editorial governance

Strategic

Executive messaging, stakeholder alignment, narrative strategy, cross-market messaging (13 countries, 7 languages), content strategy

Leadership

Team leadership, mentoring, cross-functional collaboration, board-level advisory

Tools

HubSpot, Confluence, Jira, Frontify, CMS/CRM platforms, Google Analytics, Brandwatch, SEMrush

AI

Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Jasper — AI-assisted research, writing, and workflow automation

Languages

English (native) · German (C2) · Spanish (B1)