Chris Winans

Corporate Communications

New York

​

Chris is a strategic communications adviser mostly to insurance companies. He focuses on corporate reputation protection and enhancement, crisis readiness and response, C-suite positioning, and content creation leveraging strong media relationships. His corporate communications expertise is informed by more than 20 years in journalism and five as an insurance equity analyst.
 

As a consultant, Chris has advised global banks, asset managers, and management consultants as well as life and nonlife insurers looking to raise their profiles, manage CEO transitions, prepare for changes in ownership, navigate M&A situations, and deal with top-of-the-news financial crises. He is valued for his ability to fine-tune messages and narratives that generate earned media attention.

​

Before founding his communications practice in 2017, Chris headed Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ U.S. financial services communications practice, led communications and marketing for the financial regulatory consultant Promontory Financial, and oversaw external affairs for AXA Equitable. Before AXA, he headed media relations for AIG through a period bookended by two financial crises. Previously he was a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers (now Barclays), was the editor of AM Best publications, and spent 10 years as an editor at The Wall Street Journal.

​

Chris holds a BA in liberal arts from Penn State University.

​