Comms, In My Words…
Jon White is Senior Director, International Communications at Sandisk, a multinational US-based corporation that delivers innovative Flash solutions and advanced memory technologies.
Jon joined Western Digital in January 2020 (Sandisk separated from Western Digital to become an independent public company in February 2025), shortly before the world went into lockdown, and has since seen his communications role evolve substantially to encompass new geographies and responsibilities.
Our co-founder Nicky Regazzoni sat down with Jon to get his view from the top of a global communications function and discuss what skills in-house comms leaders need right now.
Nicky: Where is the greatest challenge in your role right now, and how is it shaping your priorities?
Jon: One of the main challenges in any global communications organisation is ensuring consistent corporate messaging, while also making sure you adapt appropriately for regional nuance. While this overarching challenge is not really new, its nature has evolved rapidly with technological shifts in recent years. An increasing number of platforms and the rise of AI-generated content has meant increased noise and competition from a communications perspective. Therefore, the challenge has evolved beyond just aligning consistency of message with regional priorities, to also evolving your content strategy to ensure cut through, in an increasingly challenging environment.
Nicky: How are AI and AI-driven discovery shifts changing how you think about visibility, reputation or team capability?
Jon: Aside from the increased noise and subsequent challenges with visibility, AI-driven discovery has also evolved the process of how any company is presented online – moving beyond SEO to GEO. In this environment, an audit of how your company is presented by LLMs is becoming necessary to ensure effective reputation management. As part of this, even more intuitive tools, often driven by AI technology themselves, are important.
Nicky: What’s one shift, habit or trait that is genuinely helping you lead better right now?
Jon: Over the years in a leadership role, I’ve found that pragmatism is key. Pragmatism allows you to take a step back and evaluate things objectively, whether that’s the potential positive or negative impact of a particular strategy or activity, or to put yourself in the shoes of your team on how they may view things differently to you.In addition, now, more so than ever, you have to realise what your strengths and weaknesses are - and just as importantly, those of your team members. Here is where I’d cite the Mark Twain quote that was used at the start of “The Big Short”: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Communications today embodies so many disciplines and technologies it’s very difficult to be an expert on everything. Therefore, don’t think that just because you are the most senior person, you know better in every scenario. It’s even more crucial today to rely on the experience and expertise of your team and/or agency partners to help you get the most positive outcomes.
Nicky: What are you saying “no” to more often, and why?
Jon: I’m often saying no to the statement, “you need to do a press release on that!” As communications professionals, we’ve all heard this phrase many times in our careers. In some cases, it’s a totally valid request, but sometimes it can be used in the context of a bygone age, where press releases were one of only a few tools in the PR arsenal and PR was treated as a bolt-on activity. This is not the role of PR and communications in 2026 and, nowadays, if you’re told “you need to do a press release on that”, more often than not, the logical and indeed correct answer is “no.”Of course, as communications professionals, simply saying no is not always an adequate response. But on the flipside, communications should also not be treated as an afterthought and only looped in when a campaign or activity is well underway, or even complete. If this happens, it’s very difficult to conduct meaningful communications activities that have a discernable impact.
Nicky: What’s the one sentence you’d give another comms leader to use in the boardroom to define the value of communications?
Jon: PR and communications goes beyond just talking about products and services. Used well, it can be a strategic function, focused on creativity and storytelling, to elevate the brand as a whole. It is also key to the management of a brand’s reputation.
Nicky: What’s something about leading communications right now that people outside the function might not fully appreciate?
Jon: The scope of what’s involved in the discipline today is something those outside of communications may not fully appreciate – media, social media platforms, LLMs, forums, influencers, etc. – the range of touchpoints is enormous and as the landscape proliferates further, the scope of the role does as well.
The PR Network (PRN) has worked with Jon since 2020. Please contact nicky@thepr.network to discuss global PR support.