Jerry Silfwer (b. 1979) is the Chief Operations Officer at Whispr Group, a data-driven social media agency with offices in New York and Stockholm. The agency was founded in New York by Joakim Leijon who brought Jerry onboard as the single co-owner in 2010. After over a year stationed at Whispr New York, Jerry relocated from Manhattan back to Stockholm in late 2011 to set up Whispr Stockholm.
Besides administrating, recruiting and leading, Jerry’s creating highly visible social media campaigns, interactive websites and applications as well as strategies and digital programs for international companies in fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle. He also trains the Whispr team in blogger relations, social media strategies and account management.
Prior to Whispr, Jerry was the Head of Social Media and Key Account Manager at Springtime PR, the largest owner-led agency in the Nordics. At this time, the agency gained acclaim as one of the most prominent Nordic PR agencies in social media, combining it with expertise in Public Affairs, Internal Communications, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. During a period of this time, he was also outsourced part-time as Nordic PR Manager for Adobe.
He was one of the first two simultaneously recruits to the startup agency Spotlight PR, a visionary and aggressive venture led by Johan Wetterqvist and Axel Lagerbielke and focusing on Sales-Driven PR. The agency grew quickly to a mid-size agency where Jerry was Account Manager for internet-, technology- and telecom clients.
Some of his past and present clients include H&M, Oriflame, Adobe, Oracle, Procter & Gamble, Disney, Saab Group, .SE (The Internet Infrastructure Foundation), TeliaSonera and Groupon.
Jerry has Bachelor Degrees in Public Relations and Linguistics from Mid Sweden University and were awarded scholarships by PRECIS (Public Relations Agencies in Sweden) and DIK (Union for Communication Professionals in Sweden) for his and Markus Christiansson’s Bachelor Thesis on the relationship between influencers and publishers.
In 2008, Jerry founded the no. 1 PR community in the Nordics, PR of Sweden and he is the author of Doktor Spinn, a blog on digital PR ranked amongst the top 100 blogs on PR in the world by Invesp. For two years, he was also the co-editor with Sofia Mirjamsdotter of Same Same But Different, at the time one of Sweden’s most influential blogs on the transition between new and old media.
Politically, he was the Communications Advisor for the Swedish Pirate Party throughout the duration of the election campaign for the European Parliament in 2009, which resulted in 5,1% of the votes and two seats for the party. After the election, he left the party and hasn’t been affiliated with any political entity since.
Jerry has given a presentation at the World Public Relations Forum, given lectures at Berghs School of Communication, been the secret dinner speaker at Sweden Social Web Camp and been featured in local trade media on several occasions. He often talks about ambassador programs, social media naturals, measurability and the future of the PR industry. He is married to Lisah Silfwer, News Anchor and Video Reporter at Swedish TV4.
For more on Jerry’s professional background, connect with him on LinkedIn.
