Shaila Manyam is a strategic policy communications professional and former U.S. diplomat. She leads global client engagements for sovereign governments, NGOs and multinational corporations facing challenges in public affairs, reputation management, crisis communications and stakeholder strategy. Shaila also leads C-level and world leader client engagements at global fora including the U.S. – Africa Leaders’ Summit, the UN General Assembly, and the World Economic Forum. She coaches senior and C-suite executives and senior government officials on media, thought leadership, speaking engagements and high-level political and public-private partnership engagements in areas including global health, gender equality, space and defense, AI, foreign policy and sustainability.
Prior to joining Burson, Shaila was a Foreign Service Officer, serving as a senior national security official and spokesperson in Haiti, Israel, France and Iraq as well as Washington, D.C. as the spokesperson for the Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan/Pakistan Affairs and as a senior policy advisor to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs on UN, G7 and G20 issues. She is the recipient of multiple awards for her service, including five Superior Honor Awards from the U.S. Department of State, and recognition from the Smithsonian Institution for disaster recovery efforts in Haiti.
Shaila graduated with honors from Smith College, and received a Master’s of Science from the London School of Economics. She speaks six languages, including French, Arabic and Spanish. Shaila serves on the Board of Directors for NGO PartnersGlobal and is an adjunct faculty member for the Meridian International Center’s Corporate Diplomacy program. A frequent speaker on strategic communications and foreign policy, her media appearances include Bloomberg TV, Politico and Foreign Policy.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
French
German
Greek
Italian
Japanese
Portuguese
Spanish