

Meet the Team

Dr. Sebastian Schwark
CEO
SEC Newgate Germany

He brings more than 20 years of experience across politics, communications and business strategy. Most recently, he was Partner and Senior Vice President at Fleishman Hillard Germany GmbH, where he built and managed the corporate reputation practice focusing on corporate responsibility, as well as issue, crisis and stakeholder management.
His career started in digital start-ups in Hamburg and Berlin, before moving into political advisory in the United States, where he worked for a U.S. Senator in Washington D.C.. Since then, Sebastian has worked for Hill & Knowlton in Berlin and New York, where he led the Global Climate Change practice, and then moved to manage the New York office of Portland. After returning to Germany in 2018, he joined Edelman in Berlin as Managing Director Corporate and Public Affairs, and later APCO worldwide before his time at Fleishman Hillard.
Sebastian has an academic background as a lecturer and researcher in politics, having had stints at Columbia University and Georg-August University in Göttingen. He has written a thesis on transatlantic relations and holds a Ph.D. in political science. He has also held fellowships with The German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, DC, and the Global Solutions Initiative in Berlin.
© 2022 SEC Newgate Spa.
All right reserved.

Isabelle Zirden
General Manager
SEC Newgate Germany

Isabelle Zirden
General Manager
With a background in the humanities and years of experience in communications, Isabelle brings not only a passion for communicating with and for people, excellent networking skills but also a deeper understanding of audiences and formats.
After studying literature and cultural studies in Bonn and Berlin in Germany, she graduated with a PhD in Philosophy from Cambridge, UK. She has several years of experience as a journalist for German daily newspapers as well as in the field of public relations, both in the public sector and agencies.
She joined SEC Newgate Germany in 2019 as Senior consultant and has been part of the management team since 2020.
Isabelle is native in German, fluent in English and has a basic understanding of French, Italian and Spanish.
© 2022 SEC Newgate Spa.
All right reserved.