Laurent Pernot | President

A co-founder of Platform Public Affairs, Laurent is a 15-year media and public affairs veteran who has worked on some of the most high-profile issues and crises in Illinois in recent years.

His current clients include Advance Illinois, Toyota Park, the Village of Bridgeview and the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.

Most recently a vice president in Hill & Knowlton's Midwest public affairs practice, he provided a broad range of strategic communications services to such clients as Chicago 2016, Chicago Children's Museum, Trilliant Gaming, inc., the Compass Group, the Village of Bridgeview, the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth health system, CenterPoint Properties and an international consortium vying for the long-term lease of Midway International Airport. He also supervised media and digital strategies for the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution as it successfully advocated for a “no” vote on a binding November 2008 referendum on an Illinois constitutional convention.

Before joining Hill & Knowlton, Laurent helped devise and implement large-scale public affairs campaigns on behalf of the City of Chicago, the American Insurance Association, AT&T, the National Pharmacists Association, the Illinois Casino Gaming Association and Advocate Healthcare.

Laurent is a seasoned crisis management expert who worked on some of the most high-profile crises in Chicago in recent years, with clients including CNA, 69 W. Washington Management Company, and La Preferida, Inc.

Previously, he was a reporter in France and the United States before serving as a public affairs specialist and spokesperson for his alma matter, the University of Illinois at Chicago, from which he holds bachelor's and master's degrees in political science.