Beyond the Seat at the Table: Leading Corporate Affairs at Scale - with Megan Noel
What happens when the communications function stops being about messaging and starts being about business transformation? When your stakeholders include 10,000 employees, 94,000 students, 350,000 alumni, plus investors, policymakers, and healthcare partners?
In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle reconnects with Megan Noel, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Adtalem Global Education, to explore why the CCAO role is a fundamental reimagining of what communications does. Megan leads government relations, investor relations, public affairs, impact and sustainability, and alumni relations under one reputation-focused banner.
From managing the fallout of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" over July 4th weekend to navigating AI search optimization and Wikipedia's importance in reputation management, Megan and Dan dig into the practical realities of corporate affairs at scale. They explore how business acumen has become a hard skill, why curiosity beats credentials, and how communicators can avoid becoming "negative Nancy" while still providing strategic counsel.
Listen in and hear about...
- Why corporate affairs unifies storytelling across all stakeholder groups under a reputation banner
- How business acumen requires being "dangerous enough" in finance, law, and HR without becoming an expert
- The surprising importance of Wikipedia and specific media outlets in AI search and GEO optimization
- Why saying "yes, how" beats saying "no, but" when working with business leaders
- How curiosity and innovation mindset separate entry-level candidates who get jobs from those who don't
- The challenge of maintaining unbiased reputation when AI search platforms pull from potentially compromised sources
Notable Quotes
On Corporate Affairs Evolution: "The corporate affairs model is just the next step in that evolution. We used to just communicate what the business wanted. Now we're more than just a channel strategy to push things to different audiences." - Megan Noel [07:30]
On Business Acumen: "I certainly don't need to be as sophisticated in our numbers as our CFO. But I need to be dangerous enough in all of them to be able to sit down at a very senior level and have a thoughtful conversation." - Megan Noel [20:29]
On Strategic Counsel: "Instead of saying no, but—offer alternatives or other options so that we could potentially get to yes. When you do have to say the no, it feels like you're using that really thoughtfully and people will take you seriously." - Megan Noel [23:39]
On AI Search Reality: "There is a perception that whatever question you ask AI is unbiased, when in fact it's pulling information through just a different algorithm. It could be just as biased with other bad data." - Megan Noel [46:56]
On Innovation Mindset: "The hiring manager said it was because she showed an appetite to push and to learn and to innovate. That skill, even at the very entry level, matters." - Megan Noel [59:35]
Resources and Links
Dan Nestle
- Inquisitive Communications | Website
- The Trending Communicator | Website
- Communications Trends from Trending Communicators | Dan Nestle's Substack
- Dan Nestle | LinkedIn
Megan Noel
Timestamps
0:00 Intro: Change in PR and marketing
5:47 Evolution of Chief Corporate Affairs Officer role
13:06 Reputation as unifying banner for corporate affairs
19:40 Importance of business acumen for leaders
24:39 Communications as a critical business skill
27:46 Relationship between corporate affairs and marketing
31:28 Fostering disagreement and diverse perspectives
35:41 Impact of AI on search and reputation management
41:24 Proactively managing reputation in AI era
49:28 Balancing content creation and stakeholder engagement
53:43 Innovation as key leadership trait
57:41 Cultivating curiosity and innovation across teams
1:03:31 Closing remarks and contact information
(Notes co-created by Human Dan, Claude, and Flowsend.ai )
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