22.09.2025
Kateryna Ivanus – founder of the Kateryna Ivanus PR & Media Consulting agency – as part of the Energy Club’s educational course “Communications and Interaction in the Energy Sector,” covered how to build strong relationships with government bodies, journalists, investors, and non-governmental organizations, and how to develop a communication strategy that demonstrates the company’s operational effectiveness, ability to respond quickly to crises, and turn communication into a tool of influence.
In the modern business environment, where a company’s activities are directed at numerous stakeholder groups, effective communication becomes a key tool for success, emphasized the expert, who has been managing projects related to reputation management and building effective communications for state enterprises, businesses, and investors in Ukraine and Europe for over 15 years. One of Kateryna Ivanus’s lectures was dedicated to public opinion in the energy sector. The main thesis was that when society does not understand what is happening in the energy industry, it breeds fear, anger, and blame. To avoid this, companies need to understand the real reasons for citizens’ concerns and work with them proactively.
Kateryna Ivanus shared her impressions of the “Communications and Interaction in Energy” course with the Energy Club’s media department:
“The course demonstrated an obvious fact – it is critically important for the energy sector today to learn to speak an understandable language with all interested parties. This industry has never been simple, but right now, during a period of transformations and wartime challenges, the need for transparent communication is growing exponentially. There are too many stakeholders in the energy sector — from consumers and politicians to international partners. A logical, consistent, and managed dialogue must be built with each of them.
Communications in the energy sector can no longer be separated from business strategy or state policy. If they are not synchronized, a company loses not only trust but also the ability to influence its future. That is why investing in reputation and the ability to manage information flows becomes no less important than investing in infrastructure.
Reputational capital in the energy sector is no longer an abstraction — today it is an asset that directly defines the future of companies. In a time of transformation, trust, transparency, and consistent communication are worth no less than investments in infrastructure. After all, when decarbonization, digitalization, artificial intelligence, or the hydrogen economy are on the agenda, it will be the players who have built a reputational foundation in advance who will have a decisive advantage in interacting with the market, the state, and international partners.
The energy sector is traditionally under the close scrutiny of society and political institutions, and in wartime, this control only intensifies. Ignoring reputation management today means that tomorrow any technological or regulatory step can turn into a crisis. In this context, reputational capital is not just an intangible asset, but both insurance and a competitive advantage that will determine a company’s ability to withstand the communication challenges of the future.
One of the key conclusions from the course is that openness and expertise are not mutually exclusive. Society does not need populist slogans — it expects clear explanations that translate the complex technical language of the energy sector into something accessible to citizens and politicians. A company that can transparently argue its decisions, outline risks, and demonstrate their impact on consumers and the state becomes more relatable and simultaneously strengthens its own authority.
The main thing is not to remain silent and not to hide behind technical terms. In a communication vacuum, a company’s reputation is shaped by others — the media, politicians, or even rumors. Combining openness with strategic communication becomes a reliable tool not only for preventing misunderstandings but also for systematically building trust.
The biggest future communication challenge for the energy sector is decarbonization. This is an area where the interests of business, the state, international partners, and society intersect. For companies, it looks like a technical modernization, but for citizens, it is a matter of tariffs, jobs, and environmental safety, and for politicians, it is a tool of influence and negotiation. That is why any step in this direction requires clear, understandable, and honest communication.
No less significant will be the challenges of digitalization and artificial intelligence. They are changing the very logic of energy management and can simultaneously generate public fears. The task of communicators is to translate these complex technological changes into an understandable language while maintaining expertise and trust.
The key skills are stakeholder engagement, the ability to build multi-level messages for different audiences, readiness for crisis situations, and the integration of communication strategy into the company’s business strategy. These are the tools we analyzed in detail during the course — and they are the foundation for forming a new generation of leaders in the field of energy communications.
Such educational programs play a key role. The energy sector today is balancing between crisis challenges and large-scale transformations — from war and recovery to decarbonization and digitalization. The new generation of leaders must be able to simultaneously manage the current reputation of companies and strategically prepare them for the changes that will define the future of the industry for decades.
The training creates a space for a dual vision: it provides practical tools that can be applied tomorrow, and at the same time, it opens up a strategic horizon that allows one to see oneself as part of a global context. That is why such programs form not only communicators but also architects of trust and reputational capital in the energy sector.
I found particular value in the diversity of the course’s audience. It was interesting to communicate with heads of departments from energy companies, lawyers handling relevant cases, and representatives of government authorities. This allowed us to look at the topic from different perspectives and see how completely different people react. The questions from the audience were real feedback — and mostly of an applied nature. Participants wanted to get specific tools that they could apply in their work tomorrow. And this, in my opinion, indicates the practical demand for and usefulness of the course.
The course organizers – Energy Club – succeeded in uniting specialists from different fields and covering the topic of communications in the energy sector comprehensively and fully.”
