User:Michael Ritter 1946

Michael Ritter was born in Oberaudorf am Inn, Germany in 1946 and lives in Argentina. A reserve officer in the German army and a helicopter pilot, he studied in Buenos Aires where he earned his Master of Advertising Arts academic degree in 1974 and his PhD in Social Communication Science in 2000 at the Del Salvador University.

Professional activity

After three decades at Siemens -since 1992 and until March 2003 as senior VP of Corporate Relations and Communications and member of the Executive Board in Argentina- currently he is an independent consultant in management, communications and public affairs and Founder Partner of Ritter & Partners. His core strengths are strategic and crisis management and communications, reputation development and communications measurement.

Academic activity

Former lecturer at the UCES, FLACSO and UCA universities of Buenos Aires, Michael is currently professor at the UCAM University (Spain), the UVM (Mexico) and the UDLA (Ecuador) Universities. He is also visiting professor at other Latin American universities.

In 2005 and 2006 he was appointed member of the Peers Committee of the Argentinean National Academic Assessment and Accreditation Commission - CONEAU (www.coneau.edu.ar), a decentralized Ministry of Education's agency which was created in order to contribute to the improvement of academic education.

In 2002 Michael Ritter was appointed member of the Argentine Communication Arts and Sciences Academy in which he hold the Luis Medrano chair.

Author activity

Michael is author of a lot of journalistic articles and academic papers and several collective and two own books: "Cultura Organizacional" (Organizational Culture) edited 2008 by La Crujía, and "El Valor del Capital Reputacional" (The Value of Reputational Capital) edited 2013 By P+R Editions. His blog is ReputationCrisis.worldpress.com

Institutional Activity

During 1986 and 1987 he was president of the Argentinean Audit Bureau of Print Media Circulations – IVC (www.ivc.org.ar). Between 1997 and 1999 he held the Consejo Publicitario Argentino (Argentinean Advertising Council) chair. In 2002 he founded the Argentinean Corporate Communication Directors Association – CIRCULO DE DIRCOMS.

Awards Michael was honored with multiple awards among which highlights: the Thomas Watson Award, granted by the Business Leaders Association of Argentina (1994); the Platinum Konex Award as best corporate communicator of the decade 1987-1997 awarded by the Konex Foundation; the Jerry Goldenberg Award as Best PR Professional (1998) and the Golden Brain Award by the Atacama Foundation (2009), and the Argentinean PR Council award (2011), both for his outstanding professional career achievements.