Areas of Expertise

Company-Wide Narrative: I led point on a narrative refresh for a global amusement park who had just undergone a name change and was under increased scrutiny as a strategic growth driver for its parent company. My team conducted 11 interviews with C-suite executives, developed and workshopped three possible narrative territories, then sent short-form narrative drafts through audience testing to identify themes and language that resonated with key audiences before developing a long-form narrative and audience-specific key messages.

BU-Specific Narrative: A leading software company was preparing to launch a revolutionary customer success product, and needed to articulate its value proposition in plain language that would resonate with customers, employees, media, and investors. I interviewed executives and technical experts to develop a narrative for the launch that laddered up to the company’s overarching brand positioning while also introducing fresh and accessible language.

Proactive/Reactive: A global foodservice retailer who received upwards of 3,000 media inquiries per year needed a way to quickly assess inbound opportunities, and prioritize them against other proactive storytelling objectives. I managed a bi-coastal team of eight individuals who were responsible for staffing a 24/7/365 inquiry intake and alert system, and created efficiencies to cut the annual operating budget by 30%. I also contributed to the creation of a “media club” consisting of 10-15 comms team members who each were responsible for owning a relationship with key influential journalists, leading to higher rates of engagement and coverage. Proactive news moments were plotted out by the quarter and we convened weekly to review and reassess as merited.

Proactive: I worked directly with a senior marketing lead for a new arts and entertainment district in Southern California to build the architecture of an annual news engine, prioritizing 2-3 “marquee” moments, 6-8 “planned” moments and 10-15 “agile” moments throughout the year, informed by executive interviews and story-mining sessions with subject matter experts. This created a mechanism for the relatively nascent company to organize around, resulting in better-allocated resources, higher ROI and increased executive support.

Preparedness: I served as the crisis lead on a nimble team of experts directly advising the CEO of a major skincare brand on a significant business model transition that was likely to inflame multiple key audiences. Over the course of ten months I worked with the CEO, CHRO, and Chief Legal Officer to heat map potential outcomes, develop scenario response plans and messaging, inform proactive transition messaging to minimize risk, and set up rigorous monitoring systems for early leak detection. Business outcomes following the transition exceeded all projections.

Preparedness: I went through incident response comms training with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as part of my role as the account lead for a national airline, and provided counsel to clients on best-in-class incident response systems and procedures.

Response: I scaled the crisis & issues team of a global food retailer from a single individual to six full-time bodies over the course of two years, during which the brand experienced unprecedented levels of scrutiny and criticism. We honed our early-detection system to assess all potential risks (investigating thousands of potential issues per year), ensure accurate and informed messaging, and react in real-time to changing conditions.

Platform Development: The CEO of a regional bank wanted guidance on where/when to engage in public conversation around political and social issues. I led a team in developing a platform for the CEO informed by a series of interviews with him and his leadership team, data-informed insights around what his employees and customers cared most about, and research on public discourse and expectations. Our final recommendation provided the CEO with a “persona” he could own to stand out among his peers, a topline narrative articulating his leadership value proposition, and guardrails for the topics with which it did/did not make sense for him to engage based on his position.

Executive Profile-Building: A major creative software company wanted to increase visibility for the leadership team just below the C-Suite, however each leader had unique needs, availability and appetite for building an external profile. I led a team that successfully converted a pilot program with one executive into an ongoing, high-touch program for four leaders. We tailored each individual’s program to their role and appetite for involvement. Programs for those with less availability focused more on top tier earned media coverage, awards, and speaking opportunities. Programs for leaders who were able to be more closely involved included social media channel management and content creation, leveraging a joint slack channel for quick-response opportunities and approvals.

Thought Leadership: In 2017 when deepfake technology was just starting to make its debut in the national discourse, I spearheaded a thought leadership pitch to a major creative software company around the idea of Content Authenticity. The program included a coalition of like-minded companies and subject matter experts, targeted media and speaking opportunities, and a pledge to launch a product that would help identify manipulated content. We identified swim lanes for each C-suite executive to be able to engage with this topic in a distinct way, while still laddering up to a common message house.