**Cees B.M. van Riel is a professor of corporate communication at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).** His most recent research focuses on employee alignment and the factors that determine industry reputation. His research has been widely published with articles appearing in, among others, the Academy of Management Journal, Long Range Planning, the Journal of Management Studies, the Journal of Marketing, the Management Communication Quarterly, and the Corporate Reputation Review. He is the author of twelve books, the most well-known of which are The Alignment Factor (2012), Principles of Corporate Communication (1996), Essentials of Corporate Communication (2006) and Fame & Fortune (2004). Each book has been translated into eight different languages. He is the editor-in-chief of the Corporate Reputation Review and the managing director of the [Reputation Institute ][Reputation Institute] a research and consultancy firm he founded alongside Charles Fombrun from Stern Business School New York. Professor van Riel is the founder of the Reputation forum The Netherlands (RfN), a platform comprising company directors of communication from twenty of the largest Dutch organisations including, among which, AkzoNobel, Unilever, Philips, Ahold, ING, Aegon, KPN, FrieslandCampina, KLM and Shell. He is the founding director of RSM's International Executive Master Programme in Corporate Communication. Professor van Riel has been active as a consultant in the areas of corporate branding, reputation management and employee alignment for more than two decades, working for companies including Rabobank, ING, Philips, TNT, AkzoNobel, FedEx, Petrobras, Vale, Coca Cola, Master Card, and Baker & McKenzie. He is also involved in various annual reputation rankings including the Annual Reputation Institute Study published by [FORBES ][FORBES] conducted in 34 countries across the world's 1800 largest companies. [The Dutch component ][The Dutch component] is published in the Financieele Dagblad Netherlands. [Reputation Institute]: http://www.reputationinstitute.com [FORBES]: http://www.forbes.com [The Dutch component]: http://www.blog.adformatie.nl