Mary Jo Jacobi Jephson has established expertise in reputation, brand and crisis management from her extensive experience at senior levels of the corporate, public and voluntary sectors on both sides of the Atlantic.

Most recently, Mary Jo worked with BP on its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in the United States and helped establish its Gulf Coast Restoration Organization.  She previously led reputation management for Royal Dutch Shell, Lehman Brothers, HSBC Holdings and Drexel Burnham Lambert, and she devised and executed the award-winning global brand strategies for both Lehman and HSBC.
 
She was appointed Assistant US Secretary of Commerce by President George H W Bush and was Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, who also appointed her to his Advisory Committee on Trade Negotiations. She began her career in Washington on the staff of the US Senate Commerce Committee.  From 2005-2010 Mary Jo served Queen Elizabeth II as a Civil Service Commissioner.
 
She is a non-executive director of the trend-following hedge fund, Mulvaney Capital Management, and she chairs the idm Group, a company that builds director, board and organisational capabilities and performance, and the Independent Advisory Group of the Forensic Science Service, a leader in the analysis and interpretation of crime scene evidence. She is also a member of the FCO’s Wilton Park Advisory Council and chair of its affiliated foundations and the International Advisory Board of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity and a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University’s Centre for Corporate Reputation and Leeds University Business School.
 
Formerly a director of Tate & Lyle plc and Drexel Burnham Lambert, Mary Jo was the first woman to chair the board of the Ladies Professional Golf Association and subsequently served on the Ladies European Tour’s board.  She has been a US-UK Fulbright Commissioner and a Director of the American Council on Germany, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and the Congressional Management Foundation, as well as a Fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust and the RSA.
 
Mary Jo is a frequent lecturer and public speaker and provides commentary on American public affairs for British broadcast media outlets.