Chapu Apaolaza Joins the Ernest Team to Head up the PR and Public Affairs Department

Jan. 11, 2023

Following a career spanning two decades in the media as a journalist, columnist, political analyst and public opinion expert, Chapu Apaolaza joins the Ernest team to head up the PR and public affairs department.

From the PR perspective, Apaolaza will oversee the design of strategies and action plans on opinion leaders, combining the methodology, corporate narrative and creative power of the agency, which represents a decisive differentiating factor in achieving our clients’ objectives.

He will also lead the public affairs area, where creativity combined with a political, legislative and regulatory strategy process have an impact on decision-makers and are intrinsically linked to currents of public opinion.

Chapu Apaolaza assured:

"After over twenty years in the world of journalism, joining Ernest to work in the areas of corporate communication and public affairs represents one of the most stimulating challenges of my entire career. Despite the significance of the decision, the agency’s project and vision and the team that it is composed of leave me with very few doubts about this new stage I’m embarking on with great enthusiasm."

 

Apaolaza underscored:

"In the current context, where biases are becoming increasingly pronounced, and polarisation, the spiral of silence and cancel culture are more and more damaging, there is an even greater need for organisations to maintain an honest and effective dialogue with society and regulators."

 

Abelardo Bethencourt, Managing Director, said:

"Apaolaza is a key component in the construction of our new agency, because he brings us a perspective from the other side. His direct media experience and his hands-on insider experience of the formation of public opinion consolidate and improve our proposition. It consists of a different approach to the traditional one, because from the start of the process, journalists and consultants work together with top-level creative teams."

 

He concluded:

"It is about coming up with powerful ideas that have an impact on people, not as consumers but as citizens, and that transcend the media, thereby influencing public decision-makers."

 

Juan Ramón Lucas, director and presenter of Onda Cero’s evening news programme La Brújula from 2018 to 2022, assured:

“Chapu Apaolaza not only understands that his job demands humility and knowing how to be one of the people; he also shows that the endeavour of informing people depends on the discipline of writing. And he also does that wonderfully. He is one of the most brilliant writers of his generation. And he always knows where he needs to be."

 

Paco Marhuenda, editor of the La Razón newspaper, added:

"Chapu Apaolaza is a magnificent columnist. His analysis is serious and rigorous and he demonstrates his extensive cultural knowledge in his prose."