PRINZ appoints Suzy Giles as new chief examiner for PRINZ Accreditation Programme

PRINZ has announced the appointment of Suzy Giles as the new Chief Examiner for the PRINZ Accreditation (APR) programme.

Accreditation in Public Relations provides practitioners an opportunity to demonstrate and verify the breadth and scope of their professional knowledge, experience and ethical judgement across the entire body of knowledge of public relations and communications practice. APR is a recognised industry qualification in the USA, Canada, UK, South Africa and Australia.

Giles is a sustainability communications specialist with more than 20 years of experience in corporate communications and marketing. Her most recent role was as an Associate Partner with ERM, the world’s largest sustainability consultancy, where she led a team of ESG communications professionals helping organisations to communicate their sustainability strategy. Giles’ career has spanned both in-house leadership roles as well as consultancy, across EMEA, APAC and The Americas.

A long-time accredited member of the Chartered Institute of PR (CIPR), Giles has served as a judge for the CIPR Excellence Awards, the CIPR Education Journalist of the Year Awards and the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) Global awards.

Passionate about the value of continuing professional development, Giles has continued to ensure her skills remain relevant throughout her career, including completing the CIPR Diploma in PR, the AMEC Certificate in Communications Measurement, the Prosci Change Management qualification and most recently, an ESG Finance course with Oxford University. Giles moved to Nelson, New Zealand in 2024, following 9 years working in The Netherlands, and is now a proud member of PRINZ.

Says Giles: “Moving to New Zealand has provided me with the opportunity to be part of a new communications community, and everyone I have met through my PRINZ membership has been welcoming and inspirational. I believe the communications profession is needed now more than ever, and we need to ensure we have the strategic approach that organisations understand and value. This means supporting each other and ensuring we stay relevant to the sectors we work in. I’m really looking forward to taking on this role with PRINZ and supporting our community to continue to excel in their communications careers.”

PRINZ is confident that the APR programme is in expert hands and are very excited to see where Giles’ appointment to this role takes the programme. Applications for APR 2025 are open now and close on March 17. For more information, please visit https://prinz.org.nz/education-and-events/accreditation-in-public-relations-apr/