LONDON — Charlotte West, the VP of global corporate communications at technology giant Lenovo, will be honoured with the PRovoke Media Individual Achievement SABRE Award at the EMEA SABRE Awards in London on April 2.

West’s 25 plus years of experience in corporate affairs, reputation, and integrated brand communications has seen her protect and promote the reputation of complex global businesses across diverse markets and audiences.

Her career spans both agency and in-house roles and includes everything from global crisis management, international policy, ESG strategy, and executive and investor communications to integrated communications campaigns for brands such as Sony, Vodafone, Sky Group, Cisco, and Symantec.

West joined Lenovo 13 years ago in her first in-house role after years in agency, and hasn’t looked back; her latest elevation in 2024 saw her named as vice president of global corporate communications, with a remit including all external communications, internal communications, ESG comms, executive communications, corporate social media, crisis communications and reputation management.

Before joining Lenovo in 2016 as EMEA director of PR and social media, West spent 16 years at technology specialist agency Harvard in London, latterly as a board director, including leading its biggest client at the time, Fujitsu Services.

West’s former boss, Torod Neptune – who was CCO at Lenovo until 2021 and is now SVP corporate marketing and chief communications officer at Medtronic – said: “There is no more deserving recipient of this recognition than Charlotte. She embodies the essence of a globally oriented, no-nonsense, and impact-driven leader.

“In an industry that often celebrates the flash and the sizzle, Charlotte stands out as the embodiment of substance. She is the listener, thinker, and architect behind some of our industry's most human and creative campaigns. Charlotte is the manager we all wish we had and the leader we all aspire to become.”

West’s commitment to empowering under-represented communities sees her serve as a board director of the Lenovo Foundation, Lenovo’s philanthropy entity that focuses on empowering under-represented communities with access to technology and STEM education. She is also executive sponsor of Lenovo’s ‘Women in Lenovo’ employee resource group in EMEA and serves on both the company’s global ESG oversight committee and crisis management team.

Outside of Lenovo, West is a member of the IPSOS Mori Reputation Council, a board director of the European Network for Women in Leadership and is on the advisory council of the Steven’s Initiative (part of The Aspen Institute).

Sarah Ogden, chief client officer for Europe at Zeno, which has been Lenovo’s agency partner for many years, said: “Charlotte embodies all the skills and attributes of what future global communications leaders must possess.  Operating at the forefront of brand and reputation, she is a passionate and fearless advocate for inclusion and driving new frontiers in reputational management.

“With so many communications leaders now operating as diplomacy advisors. Charlotte has long been at the forefront of this. Her intelligent and pragmatic approach to strategic communications has seen her help navigate challenges and realize opportunities across the most diverse markets, stakeholders and channels.  She has overseen the evolution and reputational success of Lenovo as a business driven to deliver smarter technology for all. Her commitment to human-first communications has led to many campaign awards that span diverse and specialist categories and accolades.

“Above all else, Charlotte is a leader who speaks and lives her truths, being true to her values but continuing to push forward and drive progress for herself, her teams and her agency partners.”