Phil Gomes
Comms Marketing with an Open-Source Soul in Chicago, Illinois
I'm a unique chimera of corporate communicator, open-source advocate, senior communications counselor, MBA, pylocatabasist, intrapreneur, online crisis HALO jumper, technology buff, blockchain explorer, communications futurist, and cachaça connoisseur.
Only about half of those characteristics are professional qualifications, but I do hope that the rest makes me a more interesting fellow to have around.
I am the chief communications & marketing officer at Bloq, where we build software, services, and innovations for the blockchain-based future. I work with an incredible team of builders, drivers, thinkers, and dreamers.
Previously, I guided Edelman's initial explorations for two fundamental technology shifts: social media and blockchain. In the meantime, I ran a world-class employee development program, built a well-regarded certification system, managed a fair number of online crises, wrote global online behavior policies, tried to fix PR's relationship with Wikipedia, and focused on anticipating the unexpected in a trade that values predictability more than it would like to admit.
I was nearly a decade in Silicon Valley before all of that, where I worked with startups and enterprise companies alike. I helped clients to win the Technology Pioneers Programme Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Twice.
I'm also widely considered to be the first PR professional to start a blog (2001) and the first to describe and demonstrate the value of blockchain technology in communications (2015).
The rest of the time, I read more than the average retina is designed to handle, and listen to more heavy metal and jazz than is generally considered healthy or advisable.