Parnell Palme McGuinness is Managing Director of strategic communications and advocacy consultancy Thought Broker. She specialises in business and policy communications and has worked with peak bodies and businesses of all sizes. Her experience spans multiple communications disciplines, including public relations, advertising, campaigning and policy. She is a fluent German speaker and spent far too many of her school holidays as a child behind the Iron Curtain, staying with her East German grandparents. The political and economic lessons of those visits materially shaped her world view. Parnell is a regular contributor to the Australian Financial Review. She has also been published in a range of other publications and a frequent television commentator.