TEAM LEWIS rolls out in-house AI platform

Australian travel PR, communications, and corporate affairs professionals, Liza-Jayne (LJ) Loch, Gaynor Reid, and Chris Waite, have officially joined forces to launch Powerhouse Communications. 

The senior-led agency brings together three complementary specialisms - corporate affairs and government engagement, media and influence, and narrative and execution - with a focus on brands across travel, tourism, and hospitality.

Powerhouse Communications offers a full suite of services, including reputation strategy and diagnostics, executive profiling and thought leadership, media strategy, media relations and training, corporate and government affairs, crisis preparedness, issues management and embedded counsel, destination and place narrative development, and leadership presentation coaching.

With more than 90 years of combined experience, the founders have supported a wide range of brands and leaders across airlines, cruise, hotels, destinations, travel tech, and industry bodies, including Accor, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Amadeus, Flight Centre, the Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA), Club Med, Scenic Group, Salter Brothers Hospitality, and Tourism Western Australia.

The agency was launched alongside LJ, Gaynor, and Chris' respective businesses, with their own consultancies continuing to operate alongside Powerhouse and providing additional resources as needed.

"Travel brands are operating in a higher-stakes environment than ever - more scrutiny, more competition, more channels, less patience for fluff," said LJ Loch, Co-Founder of Powerhouse Communications and the ‘Strategist’ of the team.

"Powerhouse exists for leaders who need calm advice, sharp strategy and the confidence to act - especially when reputation is on the line."

Gaynor Reid, Co-Founder and the 'Connector' of the team, said the partnership is as strategic as it is simple: "Individually, we've each built careers in different lanes of influence. Together, we bring an unfair advantage - deep relationships, strong judgement, and the ability to move quickly from story to traction. It’s a Powerhouse by design."

Chris Waite, Co-Founder and 'Simplifier' of the team, said Powerhouse was created for a new reality: "The brief isn't 'get us coverage'. The brief is 'help us lead'. We take your pulse, build your profile, and turn communications into something commercially meaningful. And we do it without agency theatre - just experienced people doing work that lands." 

Alan Tanner has joined the team at Ubank as Associate Director, Media and External Communications on a 12-month contract, where he will be advising the CEO and Leadership Team on reputation, risk and opportunity. He was Head of Communications at Foxtel Group for four years. Prior to this, Alan gained agency experience at Ogilvy PR in Sydney and GCI Health in New York. 

 Nike has promoted Vanessa Marven to the role of Director of Communications, Pacific. She initially joined the team in 2024 as Principal, Communications Lead, Pacific.

Vanessa's communications experience spans more than two decades, which includes in-house experience across the luxury, retail and beauty sectors.