Brian Tomlinson

🚀 Head of Content, Staffbase | Change Communication, Marketing | I help digital leaders and corporations connect ideas, minds and metrics to drive meaningful transformations

Hi, I'm Brian 👋🏽
Most leaders think the path forward is optimization.
They're always adding — more skills, more certifications, more grind. And they usually end up burning themselves and their teams out.
I believe it's reinvention.
That's why I created Personal Innovation — a systematic approach to help mid-career professionals reinvent themselves into AI-powered leaders.
The framework is built on 3 pillars:

CLARITY — Know who you are and what you want
GROWTH — Build the systems, skills, and confidence to evolve
IMPACT — Lead with influence and create work that matters

AI accelerates every pillar — helping you think clearer, move faster, and lead with confidence.

My story:
A few years ago, I asked myself: What do I actually want?
I realized I wanted authenticity, growth, and meaningful impact. So I stopped waiting for permission and reinvented myself.
Now I help mission-driven companies build thought leadership engines and content systems that drive demand. I coach mid-career professionals through their own reinventions. And I help leaders navigate the AI era without burning out.

What I bring:
For 20+ years, I've specialized in making complex ideas accessible and systematic — from building education programs for 12,000+ employees across 126 countries to growing social channels to 100k+ followers.

I believe professional reinvention should be systematic, not accidental. 

That's why I build:
→ Content engines that translate expert thinking into action
→ AI-driven systems that scale impact without scaling effort
→ Frameworks that make leadership development accessible to people who don't have MBAs or executive coaches

My background spans sales, digital transformation, and marketing leadership — across mission-driven tech, enterprise software, and global startups.

I'm also a runner 🏃🏾‍♂️, reader 👨‍🏫, podcaster 🎙️, and father of two 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒.

I love working with leaders who:
- Feel stuck despite their success
- Want to evolve without losing themselves
- Value systems over motivation
- Are ready to lead with AI, not resist it

If that's you, we should chat.

Join my newsletter or drop me a DM.

Head of Digital Communications & International Enablement

Jane.app

- Content lead for Front Desk Digital, the online version of our print magazine, Front Desk (which has over 12,000 subscribers)
- Co-producer of Radio Front Desk podcast 
- Collaborate with Design, Product Marketing, and Product teams on blog redesign
- Manage two internal content writers and one writer with our SEO agency

Content Marketing Manager

Staffbase

I spearheaded Staffbase's global content strategy together with the Head of Content. My projects included: 

- Leading the content strategy for the VOICES conference in New York City. Collaborated with Customer Marketing, NA Marketing, and Brand & Audience teams. Producer of behind-the-scenes interviews, including keynote speakers Soledad O'Brien and W. Kamau Bell.
- Content lead and voice of You've Got Comms biweekly newsletter to an international audience of over 10,000 subscribers.
- Thought leadership development
- Blog editorial planning
- Resource creation to support our Lifecycle Marketing team
- Content support for our UK/NEMEA team
- Content partnerships with our Brand & Audience team 
- Webinar and LinkedIn Live hosting

Senior Content Strategist

As part of a global content team, I worked with my Germany-based colleagues on our English language content strategy, thought leadership development, project management, writing, and editing.

In 2022, I created the Summer of Self-Care campaign, which featured honest LinkedIn Live conversations with communicators about mental health support in the profession.

Led the Bananatag blog content migration (on Hubspot) to the Staffbase blog (on Wordpress). Worked with Marketing leadership, Content, Design, and Web Development teams to update old content for tone and voice, links and research, as well as SEO standards. By the project's end, we successfully migrated 100+ posts.

Content Marketing Writer

Bananatag

- Worked with the Content Manager and Product Marketing team to write and edit high-quality content and copy for the Bananatag blog, resources, webinars, downloads, videos, templates, landing pages, guest posts, website, newsletters, and emails
- Project managed the blog content migration (as part of the Bananatag / Staffbase global merger)
- Researched industry-related topics (internal communications and employee engagement)
- Developed content topic outlines and themes 
- Collaborated with the Marketing team on new projects and content strategy
- Identified content gaps and pitched new topics

Content Marketing Writer (merged with Staffbase)

BC Children's Hospital Foundation

- Managed marketing and communications activities and developed marketing communications plans for foundation projects, including donor events and cultivation efforts, to drive consistency and impact of message across channels and ensure all efforts adhere to the brand and donor strategy.
- Wrote, edited and disseminated a wide variety of Foundation communications, including: media materials and pitches, magazine and newsletter stories, speaking notes, marketing communications copy, briefing notes and key messages.
- Managed media relations initiatives to elevate brand awareness and support fundraising objectives.
- Helped source appropriate spokespeople for media requests, prepare for and conduct briefings, and coordinate and attend interviews when required.
- Identified, recruited and briefed hospital staff and patient family ambassadors for media, speaking and storytelling opportunities.
- Tracked and measured the effectiveness of communications initiatives and prepared wrap-up reports.

Communications Specialist

Charitable Impact

Like an online bank account for charitable giving, Charitable Impact allows Canadians to support any registered charity in Canada and manage charitable giving on their own terms. 

As part of the Experience Design team within the Product Department, I brought a content perspective to products, projects, and strategic decisions.  I also took a lead in designing content that's clear, consistent, and user-friendly. My major projects included content strategy and UX writing for a rebrand, new website, new web app, and an iOS mobile app. I also:

- Developed and contributed to content strategies that improved user experience.
- Worked closely with a team of designers, researchers, product managers, and engineers to bring a content lens to strategic decision-making.
- Aligned team members and stakeholders on content objectives and requirements, advocating for user-friendly content solutions that also achieve business goals.
- Wrote, edited, and published content for products across multiple touch points, ensuring content was clear, consistent, and aligned with brand guidelines.
- Documented content plans and engaged stakeholders throughout projects.
- Contributed to the development of an overarching, multi-channel UX and Product content strategy.
- Worked with team members to build, maintain, and share content guidelines to scale best practices in content creation.
- Conducted content inventories, audits, stakeholder interviews, and user testing activities.
- Supported the development of message frameworks, taxonomies, content migration plans, editorial calendars, content workflows, and governance guidelines.
- Sought to understand and empathize with our audience to serve them relevant content. 
- Mentored and supported junior members of the team.
- Maintained familiarity with industry trends, issues, and technologies.
- Championed content strategy and developed relationships across the organization.
- Aligned stakeholders in the long-term content vision.

Content Strategist

David Suzuki Foundation

- Together with a team of communicators from across Canada, helped lead DSF's communications strategy to achieve their climate solutions goals.
- Led content for all of DSF's national climate communications — write articles, editorials, reports, news releases, media briefings, and create social media content including video.
- Oversaw all climate-related communications to ensure their effectiveness.
- Liaised with the core communications team at DSF, and assist in the implementation of core DSF brand and content strategies as they are expressed in climate-related communications.
- Facilitated collaboration – share information and strategies within and across DSF departments and with key Canadian stakeholders such as academics, businesses, First Nations, municipalities, environmental groups, etc., often in both official languages. 
- Built the public profile of the Science & Policy team and their projects, trained spokespeople in new formats such as video, and participate in all planning and strategy sessions. This included having the opportunity to provide speaking notes and training to David Suzuki on the Charged Up campaign launch in 2018. 
- Represented DSF in public forums, such as meetings, conferences, press briefings, and other events (special appearances included: the launch of a solar project on Haida Gwaii; EcoAnalytics annual meeting in Montreal; MSF/Doctors without Borders collaboration in Vancouver and Victoria).

The University of British Columbia

Green College is an interdisciplinary graduate residential college at UBC. The College is also a unique society of scholars, providing a rich community environment for academic engagement through public lectures, conversations, and hospitality. 

- Maintained all of the College's communications channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and website 
- Interviewed notable scholars, Resident Members, and Society Members for spotlight features on our website
- Managed College-related photography and branding
- Edited abstracts for our free public lecture series
- Provided editorial guidance on all College e-newsletters and promotional materials
- Liaised with UBC departments and communicators to promote our free public lecture series 
- Spear-headed the first-ever Green College Communications Strategy 
- Coordinated media coverage of our special speakers and events
- Chaired the Media & Communications Committee at the College and lead a team of Resident Members in various areas of media development, promotion, website content, and merchandise

Special projects included:
- Organizing the UBC Centennial Session: Hewitt Bostock Lecture at Green College with Justice Murray Sinclair on the day his senate appointment was publicly announced. At this special event, I coordinated a press conference for Justice Sinclair with CBC, CTV, and Global News.
- Pioneering the Green College Instagram account
- Working with UBC Development and Alumni Engagement on a major fundraising initiative for the College ("The Conversation Project"). Together, we drafted copy and visuals that would help promote donations.
- Coordinating a lecture series for our 2016-17 academic year. I approached The Nereus Program about collaborating with the College, assisted them with their successful proposal for the interdisciplinary series, "Adapting to Global Change in Oceans and Fisheries."
- Producing the College's first-ever video with Resident Members ("Community Values")

Communications Manager at Green College

- Responsible for writing and editing with the Nereus Program at UBC Fisheries Centre. I wrote and edited content for the Nereus Program blog, featuring discussions on sustainable ocean initiatives and profiling notable researchers. 

- Collaborated with UBC Fisheries Centre's professors and key researchers to identify current issues and debates surrounding sustainability, over-exploitation of the world's fish resources, and the potential impact on future generations.

- Edited policy documents to make academic statements concise and relevant to a policy-making audience.

Writer and Editor at UBC Fisheries Centre's Nereus Program

In December 2014, I traveled to India to report on community-based mental health initiatives as part of UBC's International Reporting Program fellowship. 

Our project, "Out of the Shadows," sheds light on the emotional and economic burden of mental illness in the developing world.

Along with our colleagues who reported in Togo, Benin, and Jordan, our work was featured in the Al Jazeera documentary, "Out of the Shadows," in October 2015.

International Reporting Program Fellow

Capilano University

As part of a temporary contract, I helped to write, edit, and develop:
- flyers for programs such as IDEA School of Design and Adult Upgrading, working with program coordinators to hone the program's voice and tone 
- posts for Your Daily Cap blog profiling notable alumni, programs, and campus life (including headline-writing and SEO strategy)
- future blog posts by contributing to weekly pitch meetings

Marketing & Communications Advisor

- Interviewed notable alumni and wrote profiles for Capilano University's "Your Daily Cap" blog
- Wrote headlines
- Employed effective SEO strategy

Content Writer

The Tyee

- Pitched story ideas
- Wrote breaking news on First Nations' issues and the Mount Polley mining spill 
- Profiled groundbreaking researchers on issues of inequality: precarious jobs, motherhood in the workplace, and class barriers in higher education

Reporter

- Worked for six weeks on CBC Radio's innovative weekly current affairs show, Day 6 
- Chase produced for segments, including a special project for the June 4, 2014 shootings in Moncton, New Brunswick 
- Wrote blog copy
- Brainstormed headlines with producers 
- Developed one of the most successful blog posts: "Win the Ultimate Summer Books Package"
- Conducted extensive background research for guests such as Chai Ling, one of the student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests, manners expert and author Amy Alkon, and Upworthy's editorial director Sara Critchfield 
- Edited segments to air on Public Radio International (PRI) as special CBC Radio promotions:
   1) "George Takei on internment, Star Wars and activism"
   2) "How Disney films transformed the life of an autistic boy"
   3) "Ralph Steadman on Hunter S. Thompson and For No Good Reason" 
- Catalogued music
- Pulled audio clips for segments 
- Transcribed video
- Pitched national and international stories 
- Organized prize giveaways, including the weekly "Riffed from the Headlines" segment and the "Win the Ultimate Summer Books Package" 
- Knowledgeable in Movable Type, Dalet Plus, iNews, Video Music Library, and Audio Upload Tool softwares

Production Assistant

I'm a storyteller who is endlessly curious about the world. 

Whether translating science and policy, training spokespeople, or producing engaging content for global audiences, I elevate the human stories behind brands. 

As a creative and conscious communicator, I'm passionate about conveying messages that matter.

Here's to the next adventure.

taplio

The Battle

Brian Tomlinson

Emily Stanislaus

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?