2013 Instructional Team

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2013 Instructional Team

The instructional team for the May 8-9, 2013 Public Relations Leadership Forum includes a unique blend of leading practitioners and academics including:

  • Roger Bolton is President of the Arthur W. Page Society where as the chief staff person he administers the world’s premier professional association for senior corporate communications executives. Previously, he was senior vice president of communications at Aetna, a $35 billion provider of health care benefits, with responsibility for all internal and external communications, advertising, brand management and corporate public involvement. He also chaired Aetna’s Council for Organizational Effectiveness – a group of senior executives responsible for helping the company achieve high performance through culture change – and served on the board of the Aetna Foundation. Before Aetna, Bolton was IBM’s director of corporate media relations and director of communications for the IBM server and software groups.
  • Keith Burton recently joined Brunswick Group as a Partner following 14 years at Insidedge, a fast-growing, global employee communications group. He has counseled Fortune 500 corporations on employee communications and many other areas. Well known throughout the nation as an expert on employee communications, Keith is a past recipient of Inside PR magazine’s All-Star award in the employee communications category. Formerly an award-winning business journalist and a correspondent for Time magazine, Keith also has worked with Ketchum, Hill & Knowlton and Boxenbaum Grates/GCI. He serves on the IPR Board of Trustees.
  • Al Golin, founder of the international public relations firm GolinHarris, began his career in 1951 as a field press representative for MGM Studios.  In 1957, when he was with Max Cooper & Associates, he placed a cold call to Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s.  That conversation eventually grew to a partnership that changed McDonald’s from a fledgling company to one that has grown to 37,000 locations worldwide with 243 Ronald McDonald Houses in 25 countries. Al Golin developed the term “TrustBank” with Ray Kroc, believing trust as the greatest intangible at the heart of every long-term business or personal relationship. GolinHarris currently has 30 offices worldwide with corporate headquarters in Chicago.
  • Greg Gordon is Senior Vice President Research/Strategy with L.C. Williams and Associates. He has spend more than a decade with this full-service, Chicago-based, public relations, communications and research firm. His previous positions include Managing Director, Ragan Consulting Group, Vice President with Hughes Research Worldwide, Manager of Change Management and Communications at Navistar International, Director of Strategic Communications with Commonwealth Edison plus media relations and employee communications positions with Michigan Bell. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in journalism from Central Michigan University and a Law Degree from Michigan State University.
  • Gary Grates is one of the nation’s leading experts on employee engagement, change management and internal communications. Currently a Partner and a member of the senior leadership team with WCG, he previously was President and Global Managing Director of Edelman Change. Before that, Gary served as North American Vice President of Corporate Communications at General Motors. His experience also includes being President of GCI Boxenbaum. Grates, a consultancy specializing in change management and internal communications. He is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and has served on the IPR Board of Trustees.

  • David Grossman, a leading consultant, speaker and author, is a noted authority on communication inside organizations. He has worked closely with strategic internal communication campaigns for a number of major corporations including AOL, CVS/Caremark, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, Heinz, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Rockwell Automation and Virgin Atlantic. Prior to founding his own firm in 2000, David was director of communications for McDonald’s. He graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with an honors degree in journalism and holds a master’s degree in corporate public relations from Northwestern University.

  • Christine Jensen, APR, MBA joined DuPont Pioneer as Employee Communications Manager in 2007. Prior experience includes public relations/marketing management positions for a private college and two healthcare organizations, including Mayo Clinic, where she managed internal communication.  As owner of Jensen Public Relations, she served a wide variety of clients in the Central Carolinas and also  served as adjunct lecturer in public relations at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.
  • Frank Ovaitt is President & CEO of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), an independent research and education foundation dedicated to “the science beneath the art of public relations.”™ Previously, he was Executive Vice President, Makovsky + Company and Managing Director of Crossover International, Inc.  On the corporate side, Frank was Vice President-Corporate affairs for MCI and prior to that held a variety of executive positions with AT&T. He has taught applied public relations research at The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management and has guest lectured at a number of universities. Frank holds a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and an MBA from NYU.
  • Greg Sendi is Global Strategist Community Leader and Director of the Geoimpact Sustainability Practice at GolinHarris. Now in his seventh year with the firm, Greg has handled assignments involving corporate reputation, sustainability communications, crisis/issues communications, corporate social responsibility, measurement and analytics, business-to-business marketing and communications. Prior to joining GolinHarris, Greg spent two years as a Senior Vice President with GCI Group, five years with Northlich and three years as a Vice President with FleishmanHillard. He holds a BA degree from Johns Hopkins University and attended graduate school at Yale University.
  • David Wescott is a director of digital strategy at APCO Worldwide. He joined APCO in 2002 and helped establish its social media practice and its flagship blog, Virtual Vantage Points, in 2007.  He is the author of “It’s Not a Lecture,” a blog that examines technology and communications issues.  He is a contributor at “Global Voices Online,” “Earth and Industry,” “Science Cheerleader” and “The Broad Side.”  Prior to joining APCO, He was a legislative assistant and economic policy advisor to US Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  He has also served as administrator for the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine. 
  • Donald K. Wright is the Harold Burson Professor and Chair in Public Relations at Boston University’s College of Communication, the world’s first degree-granting institution in public relations. He is one of the world’s most published public relations scholars, serves on the IPR Board of Trustees, spent 24 years as a Trustee of the Arthur W. Page Society, and is an IPR Research Fellow. Don also is a founding member and past chair of the IPR’s Commission on Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation. Prior to entering the academic world, he held a variety of corporate and agency positions in public relations and has been an active consultant for several decades. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota.

Inquiries

Dr. Don Wright, Harold Burson Professor and Chair in Public Relations, College of Communication, Boston University
DonaldKWright@aol.com (Tel: +1-617-306-4006)

Jenn Moyer, Foundation Operations Manager, Institute for Public Relations
JMoyer@jou.ufl.edu (Tel: +1-352-392-0280)