Best consultancies

Brussels Office Since

2017

Firm Description

Rud Pedersen is a European public affairs agency with Nordic roots. Long established as the largest public affairs agency in the Nordics, we are growing fast across the continent, with new offices opened in Brussels, Berlin, London, Paris, Sofia, Warsaw and Kjiv since 2017.

Shaping EU policy and politics is harder than ever. Policy making in Brussels is often highly technical: public affairs professionals must understand regulatory frameworks in depth and have a high degree of issue knowledge. Meanwhile, a more political Commission, engaged Parliament and greater involvement from member states, fuelled by a more active citizenry, has created a more challenging and emotive political environment.

Our consultants reflect the full spectrum of skills required to succeed in this vibrant space. We have experts with decades of experience in the European Commission and regulatory agencies who can navigate the most technical of expert groups, through to former digital marketers and journalists who are able to develop programmes and campaigns that build political capital and shape public sentiment.

In six years, our office in Brussels has grown from a start-up of 2 people to a large agency of 75, quadrupling staff numbers and revenue since 2020.

Ownership Structure

Partnership

International Network

Rud Pedersen’s Brussels office is part of the Rud Pedersen group, one of the fastest growing public affairs and strategic communications companies in Europe. It has over 500 consultants operating in Brussels, Berlin, London, Paris, Warsaw and across the Nordics and Baltics. We are active in other European capitals, working with dedicated public affairs partners.

Key Strengths

• Partners and other senior staff do the work: We believe that partners and other senior staff should do most of the legwork if clients are truly to get the level of service required to succeed. Our partners and directors are involved in the day-to-day running of all activities.
• We are independent: We are owned by our partners, so we invest our profits in people rather than payments to holding companies. As a result, we have higher ratios of staff to revenue than a typical network agency, meaning our consultants are less stretched and, we like to think, able to perform to a higher level.
• European team with Nordic roots: Our team in Brussels is truly European. Sixteen nationalities are represented, and we have many Brussels veterans amongst us. But our Nordic roots are reflected in our culture, which we sum up up as: caring, inquisitive, and driven.
• Multi-disciplinary team: We know specific areas like energy and climate, or food and ag, and the regulatory framework that governs them inside out. But we appreciate that there are many ‘horizontal’ issues, like tech, trade and tax, that might affect clients. Moreover, public affairs at times also requires environment-shaping activities like grassroots campaigning, digital, and media engagement. Amongst our staff we have experts in a wide range of sectors and disciplines that are relevant to clients looking to shape events in Brussels.

Number of Public Affairs Consultants

75

Key Clients

Thought Leadership

Rud Pedersen run several event and podcast series displaying our interest and expertise across a number of policy areas, through to the practice of public affairs in a fast changing world:

• Climate Talks: Hosted by Peter Vis, who led the development of the EU's climate policy for over two decades in a variety of roles in the European Commission, Climate Talks is a webinar series launched in March 2020 that features some of Europe’s leading climate and energy experts exploring issues ranging from ETS, energy efficiency in buildings, through to EU Taxonomy.
• Blue Deal Debates: Hosted by the former chair of the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee, Chris Davies, the series features discussions on the essential need for a European Blue Deal in parallel with the European Green Deal, providing institutional, industrial and environmental stakeholders a platform to debate their questions.
• Chemical Reactions: Chemicals Reactions is a podcast series also moderated by Chris Davies in tandem with James Stevens, Managing Partner. It explores the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and its impact on the chemicals industry in Europe. The show has featured high level speakers from industry, national ministries, NGOs, as well as a special edition with Bjorn Hansen, Executive Director of ECHA.
• D9: A podcast hosted by Claudio Murri, Senior Advisor at Rud Pedersen following 30 years of experience in public policy and government affairs at Time Warner, Oracle, Electronic Data Systems and IBM. In this series, Claudio interviews leaders in tech from the D9 countries, Europe’s #Digital Frontrunners.
• Next Generation Public Affairs: In this podcast, hosted by our partner in charge of communications and campaigning, Steffen Thell-Moller, we explore challenges and opportunities in our profession, given developments like rapid digitalisation and citizen activism, through to the need for public affairs to evolve into a more commercially relevant function within businesses.

Testimonials and why clients like to work with us

Our clients see us as trusted advisors, who understand them and the businesses they serve and solve their challenges whatever they may be. Our clients know when they hire Rud Pedersen that they receive senior counsel and senior-level implementation.