Tech PR Strategy

Delivering strategic advice to our clients

An outside view from experts in technology, mergers and acquisitions, macroeconomics, communications, and more, can add real value to your PR strategy. This could be a decisive factor in achieving your objectives. 

Within our agency, we have a network of leading international names who can advise you on a whole host of business challenges, whether it’s: your next acquisition, IPO, product strategy, fundraising etc, and how these link to your communication and storytelling strategy.

Our senior leadership team come from some of the world’s most prestigious universities and have recognised professional backgrounds:

• Colette Ballou, Chairman of Ballou and Limited Partner
• Pankaj Amin, Founder and Managing Director of SC Ventures and Non-Executive Director of Ballou
• Karen Harris, Managing Director of Bain’s Macro Trends Group and Non-Executive Board Member of Ballou
• Niamh Gavin, Head of Applied-AI and Computational Science, and Non-Executive Board Member at Ballou  

They will be available on a regular or ad hoc basis, depending on your needs.

Colette is the founder and president of Ballou. With a keen sense of observation, she identifies trends in the tech and investment space, understands the ecosystem from the inside, and puts her knowledge to work for Ballou’s clients. She has worked with the likes of: 

• Klaus Hommels (Lakestar) 
• Jan Koum (WhatsApp)  
• Mark Zuckerberg (Meta)

Colette opened each of Ballou’s offices (Paris, London, Barcelona and Berlin). She and her teams have a track record of success, including the successful launches of:

• Facebook and Pinterest in France 
• TransferWise in Germany
• Twilio and Eventbrite in the UK

Colette is involved in crisis management and executive consultancy, and regularly presents strategic communications recommendations to boards of directors.

Recognised for her expertise in public relations, business management and the European tech ecosystem, she is a regular speaker at conferences on topics such as the importance of reputation, caring in the workplace and investor responsibility.

Colette is also an investor in several venture capital and private equity funds, including Cavalry Ventures, Connect Ventures and Asia Partners.

An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Pankaj Amin is the founder and managing director of SC Ventures.

A board member and Audit Chair of Waséyabek Development Company, an Indian investment fund, Pankaj has previously served on the boards of MUBIC and Enzo Bevande, as well as numerous not-for-profit organisations.

Pankaj Amin began his career at Booz-Allen & Hamilton and Goldman Sachs, before working at Model N (NYSE: MODN). This Accel-KKR-funded enterprise software company went public in March 2013. He subsequently became CEO of AffiniTel, a San Francisco-based telecoms equipment company acquired in 2004 by SC Ventures.

Since 2012, Pankaj has also been an adjunct professor in the MBA programme at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey. 

He has lectured at: 

• Columbia Business School 
• the Harvard Club 
• New York University

He has spoken on entrepreneurship, turnaround strategy and governance.

Karen Harris, managing director of Bain’s Macro Trends Group, is also a member of:

• The Council on Foreign Relations, 
• The National Committee on US-China,
• The Economic Club of New York,
• The Global Futures Council and 
• The Chief Economists Community for the World Economic Forum.

Karen serves on the external board of directors for Harvard University’s Master of Design Engineering program and on the international board of the Belfer School at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Karen Harris works for the Helen Keller Institute International, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preventing blindness and providing basic necessities such as access to healthcare and food for all.

Niamh is an applied scientist who uses a systems-based approach to transform groundbreaking research into commercial AI-first products that scale safely. Her investor-operator experience spans the tech stack, product lifecycle, business functions, and company stages across the US, EU, MENA, and Asia. 

Examples include:

• AI-driven BioTech
• Semiconductors 
• Material science
• Robotics

Niamh Gavin has a double First Class degree from the University of Oxford in Natural Sciences, an MBA from Stanford University (GSB), the IMC from the CFA and was a Post Graduate at Stanford/Tsinghua University (paused: Visa/Covid). 

She was a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, Chief of Staff at Barclays Bank, and Investor/Operator for both Venture and Growth investment funds, such as Summit Partners. 

For the past seven years, Niamh has conducted holistic due diligence and Board support for first-generation ‘deep-tech’ startups for a wide range of clients spanning research, government, and funds across USA, EU and UK.