Ms. Cruikshanks has over 25 years of public diplomacy and strategic communications experience. Having worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and in Brussels, she then joined Hill & Knowlton International in Brussels. She built the public affairs client base there over a time period of 21 years to being the biggest consultancy on the Brussels scene. In addition, she had the role of Head of Hill & Knowlton’s global public affairs practice bringing together public affairs practitioners from all over the world.
Elaine has worked for a number of governments and international organisations such as the Global Fund, the Gates Foundation, Temasek (Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund), the governments of Botswana, Republika Srpska, Dubai, Maldives and Turkey.
Ms Cruikshanks served as a Board Member on the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU from 1998-2008. She was also a founding member of the European Public Affairs Consultancy Association. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Euractiv Foundation.
Since January 2010, she is the owner and managing director of Elaine Cruikshanks Consulting, an independent consultancy specialised in providing strategic advice and public affairs and public relations support to governments, associations, corporations and NGO’s.