About Portolan Global
A boutique consultancy offering quality services in public policy advocacy, government and stakeholder relations for industry, impactful communications and outreach, board oversight, and international political risk. Portolan Global provides creative approaches in the management of external relations for corporate boards and companies active in the area of clean energy, advanced small reactors (SMRs), environmental and regulatory affairs – with a special focus on advocacy, outreach and messaging for success.
Behind the name
A portolan is a harbour-finding chart designed for the use of mariners to guide them to safe harbours. Portolan charts originated in the 15th & 16th centuries in Italy and northeastern Spain. Drawn on parchment, they depicted stretches of coastline sailed by local mariners, features such as headlands to get one’s bearings, treacherous shoals to avoid, and prevailing wind directions to set course. As aids to navigation, they were remarkably accurate, drawn from experience, and set down with great care and skill. A distinguishing feature of portolans is the wind rose, which depicts the eight principal wind directions and criss-crossing rhumb lines used for charting one’s sailing course. Portolan Global’s logo is a modern design of a typical wind rose, along with rhumb lines for safe travel to one’s destination. That, in a nutshell, is Portolan Global: providing creative, skillful and experienced advice and guidance to get safely to your objectives without losing your way.
"The portolan chart originated in thirteenth-century Italy, as an aid to the pilots navigating their way across the often treacherous Mediterranean Sea. They are characterized by rhumb lines, lines that radiate from the centre in the direction of, often elaborate, wind or compass points that were used b pilots to lay courses from harbour to harbour. Generally drawn on vellum and often embellished in silver and gold, they were, at their height during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, some of the most beautiful examples of the mapmaker's art ever produced."
- Daniel Crouch Rare Books, Catalogue TEFAF Maastricht, March 2020
Why global?
Portolan Global offers a unique skill set in intergovernmental relations, international diplomacy, foreign policy, global governance negotiations, consensus-building diplomacy and identifying, and responding to, geopolitical risk. Portolan Global’s principal is a seasoned diplomat and former Ambassador of Canada with years of experience at executive level in Global Affairs Canada, NATO, the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency. He gives Portolan Global an integrated national and international perspective, bringing a truly strategic approach to clients’ objectives and interests. The charts we prepare for our clients are more than just local; they connect to become a world atlas.
Who we work with
Companies needing fresh direction on how to navigate through and in deep policy waters – for maximum effect. Companies seeking to find how environmental, social and governance (ESG) fits in with their products, services and objectives.