Evonne Geluk commences as NZ Corporate Affairs Manager

 Independent strategic communications consultancy, Orbit Strategic Communications, has officially opened its doors. The consultancy is led by four partners - Jan Chessell, Caroline Gurney, Ingrid Pyne, and Jemima Whyte - who collectively bring decades of experience across media and communications.

Orbit offers a range of services, including strategic advisory, leadership positioning, stakeholder engagement, and transactions and transformation.

Jan joined from not-for-profit organisation, Energy Leadership Australia, where she built and led its comms functions. A former journalist with roles at The Daily Telegraph (London) and the Sydney Morning Herald, she later moved into senior communications roles across PR agencies and in-house teams in the banking and finance sectors.

Caroline most recently served as CEO of investment group, Future Generation. With over 20 years' experience in corporate communications, she was previously Head of Asia-Pacific Corporate Affairs at Citigroup and UBS.

Ingrid spent the past four years at Wilson Asset Management, where she worked alongside Caroline and developed content and leadership platforms to grow the Future Generation brand. She's backed by a 20-year journalism career, spanning global outlets including The Times (London), The Australian Financial Review, Seven Network, and The Australian Women's Weekly.

Jemima transitioned into comms after finishing up 20 years at The Australian Financial Review. Her experience spans print media, podcasts, and free-to-air television production.

"Orbit is the result of many conversations over the years and finally finding the right time to join forces," Jan said.

"We all bring our own unique skill set, experiences and insights to corporate communications, and we are all committed to providing the best possible strategic advice and support for our clients." 
t possible strategic advice and support for our clients."

Claudia Wan has taken on a new role as PR Manager, APAC at Helios Worldwide. Based in Singapore, she leads strategic communications, branding, and investor relations for clients across the finance, gaming, fashion and luxury industries in the region.

Claudia joins from Fifth Ring, where she worked with organisations across the energy, maritime, and corporate sectors.

TEAM LEWIS has launched Marketing SideKick, a proprietary AI-powered marketing intelligence platform available to its clients.

Developed in-house, the platform is designed to support marketing and communications teams by connecting data across PR, web, CRM and paid media functions, and providing recommendations as trends and narratives evolve.

Marketing SideKick comprises a suite of AI tools, including:

• Playbook – maintain brand memory and context across strategy, messaging and assets.
• Scout – track AI visibility metrics and share-of-voice tracking across AI search and answer engines.
• Ping – provides always-on media monitoring and narrative intelligence.
• Editor – refine content for clarity, structure, and brand consistency.
• Presenter – generate editable, on-brand presentations from briefs.
• Coach – deliver presentation training with performance insights.