Columbia Business School

Amherst College

Hunter College High School, New York

Parkway West Senior High School, St Louis

Change leader; builder of thriving comms/consulting practices

Supporting Brunswick's global success by establishing core approaches for client engagement, talent recruiting and development, and other professional practices to help Brunswick's thriving culture scale.  

As a Partner on the Client Service team, help ensure all clients receive the best of Brunswick, strengthening their relationships with key stakeholders and navigating critical issues towards positive outcomes.

Brunswick Group

Partner, Client Service

Founder and leader of McKinsey's global Strategic & Change Communications practice, which ensures that the firm's work is communicated to clients in ways that will inspire action and deliver impact. The practice includes 30+ colleagues who help McKinsey's consulting teams combine comms strategy, a modern range of approaches and platforms, and world class creative work.  Q3 2021 data showed the team with year-on-year personnel growth of 30 percent and client growth of 60 percent.

Was also responsible for global team of 15+ strategists who work to increase McKinsey’s success rate in competitive proposals. Their involvement makes a competitive proposal 30 percent more likely to succeed.

Also responsible for transforming McKinsey’s communications culture away from an overreliance on PowerPoint by leading integrated global change across areas including technology, training, and support services. Co-developed McKinsey’s new core approach to client-facing communications, EPIC, which anchors consulting teams around the concepts of Empathy, Purpose, Insight, and Conversation. 5,000+ new colleagues have received extensive training in this approach, leading to a sustained jump in client feedback scores in this area.

From March-August 2020, was tapped to lead McKinsey's global remote working initiative to rapidly adapt the firm's client service to a remote model during the Covid era.

McKinsey & Company

Global Head, Strategic & Change Communications practice

Set and executed the strategy for McKinsey's internal communications function, working with the Global Director of MD and Internal Communications to help the CEO deliver his agenda to reshape and grow the firm. Grew incumbent team of 3 up to 14, and led our work to inform, engage, and motivate McKinsey's [then] 25,000 employees across 127 offices in 68 countries. 

Frequently consulted with senior McKinsey leaders to develop new programs to support strategic goals, then managing budget and leading the global team to deliver. Occasionally advised McKinsey clients on improving the effectiveness of their comms functions.

Directly responsible for the revitalization of the company's main internal communications channel. Developed new content strategy, staffed up team to deliver, and managed external agency to develop successful new digital formats and platforms. Results included a sustained 3x increase in readership, with 95 percent of readers saying they trusted the publication and 71 percent reporting that they had tried something new at work based on something they had read.

Starting Oct 2016, led six-month assignment to stand up a communications function (external and internal) for McKinsey Design. Building on the heritage of recent acquisitions LUNAR (San Francisco) and Veryday (Stockholm), McKinsey Design is at the scale of a Top 10 design firm globally, with 300+ designers, 500+ awards, and 500+ patents granted.

Director, Global Internal Communications

Led teams delivering business-critical projects for private and public sector clients in the UK and US. Over five years, led, supported or negotiated more than twenty pieces of work, with a functional split of approximately 40% organizational design and change, 30% operations improvement, and 30% strategy and other domains. Broad sector experience including media, financial services, education, and healthcare. 
  
Responsibilities included managing teams of consultants and client executives to deliver work; conceiving, developing and negotiating new projects; and acting as a counsellor and coach to senior client executives. 

Extensive experience deriving insights from data and using analysis to inform and drive action. Have led analytic, development and implementation teams. 

Major successes included helping a global investment bank improve from 12th to 1st in customer service in one year, a UK healthcare provider improve from bottom quartile to Top 3, and a US public service provider reorganize its business operations to become more efficient and responsive, resulting in sharply improved outcomes for the service it provides.

Senior Engagement Manager

Founded and led consulting practice to improve the effectiveness of PR spending by technology companies. Developed proprietary models to analyze clients’ media presence; worked with clients to set or adjust media strategy based on areas of strength, weakness and competitive opportunity. Clients included McAfee, PeopleSoft and VeriSign.

Editorial Strategies

Founder and CEO

At SF Interactive, managed communications function for $10M digital marketing agency, including media relations, investor relations and internal communications. 

At Hero Capital, developed go-to-market strategy for startup investment bank with $3M of angel funding. Led customer research and translated results into significant shift of overall business strategy.

SF Interactive and Hero Capital

Director of Communications

Ran budget and team of nine responsible for corporate and product PR initiatives of McAfee, then the world’s largest security software company. Named technology practice’s top account team in 1999.

Porter Novelli

Senior Account Executive

Co-founded Ogilvy DC’s technology practice in 1995, serving cybersecurity clients including one of the DC area’s first internet IPOs.

Ogilvy Public Relations

Account Executive

Responsible for all aspects of production of magazine targeted at Capitol Hill staff, circulation 100,000.

Cabe Franklin