Philippe Borremans holds a Public Relations degree from the INIREP, (Institut International des Relations Publiques) and started his business communications career at Porter Novelli International, a global public relations firm in 1995. During his 4 year stay as a Public Relations Consultant he worked for organizations like Federal Express, Iomega,Monsanto and the Association of Plastic Manufacturers in Europe. In 1997 he started to specialize in crisis communications and in - what was then called - online PR. In October 1999 · just in time for Y2K - he was asked to join IBM Belgium in the function of Public Relations Manager for the IBM Global Services business unit. After one year he held the responsibility for all external communications of all IBM business units in Belgium & Luxembourg. During the next 4 years he managed media relations and influencer programs for the company. From 2005 onwards he held a European coordination role for IBM's online communications activities and the use of social media in the context of public relations. Next to IBM Philippe started his own training & consulting company in 2005. In this capacity he coached PR and marketing professionals on the use of social media & provided media training for business executives. In January 2008 Philippe took a leave from IBM and created Blackline, a social media agency together with Leads United, a leading Belgian Public Relations company. In January 2009 Philippe decided to go his own way and returned part time to IBM. Today Philippe is Chief Social Media Officer at the Van Marcke Group of Companies.Next to this function he continues to organise workshops for business communicators around the use of social media in an external, internal and crisis communications context.