Dennis Larsen by the fjord in Oslo, outside the Linq offices, from where the global operation is run.
For Dennis Larsen, reputation isn’t a bolt-on. It’s a boardroom issue — and one that business leaders ignore at their peril.
“There’s a misconception that reputation is something to worry about after the fact,” says Larsen, managing director and founder of Linq Advisors. “But if you embed it at the start of strategic decision-making, it becomes a driver of performance. That’s what we’re here to do.”
He’s got the credentials to back that up. Originally trained as an economist, Larsen cut his teeth at the Reputation Institute, where he was tasked with converting academic theory into practical advice for multinational clients. A move to London followed, and then roles spanning Jordan, Singapore and Europe — culminating in the establishment of Linq’s predecessor firm’s European headquarters. He launched Linq Advisors with a singular purpose: to put reputation strategy at the heart of leadership thinking.
“I wanted to build a specialist advisory that wasn’t an offshoot of a communication agency,” he says.
Larsen’s pitch is clear: boards and executives need to understand the inherent value of reputation if they want to future-proof their decisions. “It’s a leadership imperative,” he explains. “Just look at someone like Paul Polman. During his tenure at Unilever, he delivered returns more than double the FTSE 100. That wasn’t accidental — it was reputational leadership.” Linq now operates across Europe and the Middle East with a network of 20 advisors — many drawn from backgrounds in data science, consulting, and senior in-house roles.
Expansion into Asia, North America and Latin America is next on the roadmap. Despite his global remit, Larsen insists his approach remains sector-agnostic. His client list spans Japanese and Indian conglomerates, European brewers, and household-names in consumer goods, tech and energy. “What unites them is ambition,” he says. “They’re looking to integrate reputation into strategy — not just mitigate risk after the fact.”
His own international journey is equally diverse. Born in Kenya to a Dutch mother and Norwegian father, he’s lived in the US, Denmark, the UK and now Norway. Along the way, he studied at MIT, taught at Rotterdam School of Management and BI Norwegian Business School, and served on the board of the European Association of Communication Directors in Brussels.
Larsen is enthusiastic about all aspects of Linq’s offer, but his real passion lies in working directly with leadership teams. “Helping founders, CEOs and boards build reputation into business strategy — that’s where the real impact lies,” he says. “It’s not about firefighting. It’s about foresight.”
With Linq, he’s building something quietly radical: a new category of advisory that sits between strategy consultancies and communications firms, speaking the language of both. “Boards already have advisors for strategy. And for communications. But very few offer reputation advice tailored to the C-suite. That’s the space we’re defining.”