Tim
Walmsley

Tim Walmsley heads up APCO’s change management practice in the Middle East, focused on enabling organisations to succeed with their stakeholders as they transform to become fit for the future, more efficient, more sustainable and better places to work.

At APCO, he designs and leads culture and values programmes; strategic transformation and change management initiatives and employee experience and engagement projects for clients in the financial, energy, advanced technology and government sectors and beyond. He is also responsible for creative deployment of AI to accelerate diagnostics, sensing and research on organizational health, as well as to personalize employee engagement at scale across large organisations.

With over 25 years’ total marketing and communications experience, Mr. Walmsley has built up a formidable body of expertise in stakeholder-led brand communications and content marketing across earned, owned, shared and paid media, as well as in advocacy advertising, multidisciplinary campaign management, issues and crisis handling.

At his previous agency his experience included running the nine-strong embedded team for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for the Group Communications and CSR function; building and operating the outreach and communications function at a newly established Royal Court entity in Riyadh, and leading a combined technical advisory and communications programme to establish an UAE-wide ESG Index for the Ministry of Economy’s UAE CSR Fund.

As the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Dubai International Financial Centre Dispute Resolution Authority (DRA), Mr. Walmsley orchestrated an integrated marketing function around a digital core. With his five-strong team he extended the reputation of DIFC Courts globally through such projects as the Courts of the Future and Courts of the Blockchain projects.

Prior to DRA, he headed up the PR and social media agency Impact Porter Novelli, retaining a hands-on client handling role through strategic planning and executive training. During his time in the Gulf, he expanded the agency, extending the client portfolio to include government work (ranging from change management communications in the utility sector to capacity building at municipal level); major multinationals in the consumer and tech arenas; and blue-chip clients in the financial services, real estate, automotive and beauty sectors. Previously, he was technology practice leader in Paris, directing cross-border teams for European tech clients in telecoms, wireless, e-marketplaces and consumer tech segments.

His earlier experience, evenly split between the UK and Belgium, encompassed European crisis and issues management, covering topics as diverse as Europe’s aging demographic, nuclear waste management, plastics production, telecoms and the high-tech sector. He began his career supporting the UK Government’s first department-wide branding programme and led projects to roll out initiatives supporting the economic and social transformation of Central and Eastern European countries.