Gainesville, Fla. – The Institute for Public Relations is thrilled to announce the addition of four new Trustees to its Board:
- Ian Bailey, SVP, Communications and Community, Qurate Retail Group
- Emily Graham, Chief Diversity Officer and Global Practice Lead, FleishmanHillard
- Olivia Petersen, Associate Vice President-Communications, Morning Consult
- Jennifer Skyler, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, American Express
Ian Bailey
Ian W. Bailey became Senior Vice President, Communications and Community, Qurate Retail Group in May 2020. In this role, Ian is responsible for developing and implementing communications & PR strategies that engage team members and other key stakeholders around the world, raise awareness of the company’s value proposition, demonstrate the power of its portfolio of leading retail brands and highlight its innovative leadership across the retail, media, and social landscape. He oversees a global team that includes corporate communications, financial communications, internal communications, corporate responsibility, community affairs, and consumer public relations teams. Ian also serves as a member of the company’s global leadership team.
Ian has nearly three decades of experience in public relations and communications, spanning corporate communications, internal communications, financial communications, investor relations, and issues management, with leading global agencies in the U.K. and the U.S. (including FTI Consulting, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, and Weber Shandwick), and as co-founder and Managing Partner of Capital C Partners, independent business and communications strategy consultancy.
Prior to his current role, Ian served as the Vice President, Head of Communications and Public Relations at Abercrombie & Fitch Co., where he led internal communications, media relations, crisis communications, and brand public relations for its Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie kids, Hollister, and Gilly Hicks brands.
Ian is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, the world’s leading professional association for senior public relations and corporate communications executives and educators, and serves on the planning committee for The Seminar. He earned his bachelor’s degree in German with management studies from King’s College, University of London.
Emily Graham
Emily is Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at FleishmanHillard, the first in the agency’s history. In her role, she leads global diversity & inclusion strategy across FleishmanHillard’s 80+ offices in 30 countries. She is responsible for accelerating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) as a critical business priority across FleishmanHillard’s global network while continuing to provide top-tier client counsel. She is also the founder of True MOSAIC, a practice group of communicators dedicated to driving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the center of corporate strategy.
A senior communicator, D&I Champion, and trusted counselor with a specialty in corporate and financial communications, she brings nearly 15 years of experience working across global PR agencies in progressive roles guiding Fortune ranked companies including BlackRock, AT&T, General Motors, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deloitte LLP on integrated and executive visibility campaigns. Previously, Emily co-led FleishmanHillard’s Americas Financial and Professional services sector where she drove practice growth, client experience, and issues counsel. In 2017, she played an integral role in launching FH Perspectives, an award-winning global D&I program which highlights the diversity of thought and lived experience that the agency’s 2000+ employees bring to their work with clients every day.
She serves as a member of FleishmanHillard’s leadership team, The Cabinet, tasked with guiding the firm’s strategy and mission. She earned her Bachelor’s from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and serves on the Global Board of Directors for Dress for Success Worldwide – a non-profit focused on helping women achieve economic independence and career advancement. Emily is also an advisory board member for Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications and the SMU Meadows School of the Arts. Recently, Emily was named a ‘Top 40 Under 40’ by Crain’s New York Business, a Top Woman in PR by PRNews, and has been profiled by Forbes, LinkedIn, Essence, and PRWeek.
Olivia Petersen
Olivia Petersen is the Associate Vice President of Communications for Morning Consult, leading the global data intelligence company’s communications team. Olivia previously worked for Whole Foods Market as a Global Communications Director, where she was instrumental in executing crisis communications and assisting in corporate messaging for the company and its more than 500 stores. Prior to that, Olivia served as the Senior Communications Director for NBC News, overseeing hard news promotion across broadcasts as well as leading communications strategy for the network’s Washington bureau, including “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.”
Additionally, she established the public relations function within POLITICO, where she led communications efforts and executed a booking strategy averaging more than 500 broadcast hits each month. Olivia was also a member of The Dewey Square Group’s communications practice.
Olivia earned a News and Documentary Emmy® Award nomination for the 2017 “Meet the Press” Film Festival in collaboration with the American Film Institute as well as a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism for her “POLITICO LIVE” efforts during the 2012 presidential election cycle.
Olivia graduated from The George Washington University with her Bachelor of Arts in Political Communication and from Georgetown University with a Master of Professional Services in Public Relations and Corporate Communications.
Jennifer Skyler
Jennifer Skyler is the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at American Express. She is a member of the Company’s Executive Committee, with responsibility for public and colleague communications, reputational risk management, and corporate social responsibility. She is also Chairperson of the American Express Foundation. Prior to American Express, Skyler served as WeWork’s Chief Communications Officer, where she built a multi-disciplinary department that included communications, government relations, public affairs, strategic events, brand, and social impact. Before WeWork, Skyler launched and oversaw Facebook’s consumer communications and data science teams and was responsible for the press strategy around key products and partnerships that encompassed news, sports, entertainment, and social good. She also worked at Polyvore, a company acquired by Yahoo, where she was the first public relations hire, leading their communications and marketing strategies.
Skyler began her career in newsrooms, first at CNN, where she started as an executive assistant and rose through the ranks to become a White House producer. After working with Norah O’Donnell at MSNBC, she became an anchor producer at the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric. At CBS, she was part of the team that was nominated for two Emmy awards and won the Alfred I. DuPont Award for political coverage during the 2008 election.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she majored in Communications Studies with a concentration in Japanese. She serves on the University of Michigan’s Tri-State NextGen Leadership Council and is a member of the Regional Plan Association’s Board of Directors.
A native of Flint, Michigan, Skyler lives in New York City with her husband, Ed, and their three children.
About the Institute for Public Relations
Founded in 1956, the Institute for Public Relations is an independent, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations™. IPR creates, curates, and promotes research and initiatives that empower professionals with actionable insights and intelligence they can put to immediate use. IPR predicts and analyzes global factors transforming the profession, and amplifies and engages the professional globally through thought leadership and programming. All research is available free at www.instituteforpr.org and provides the basis for IPR’s professional conferences and events.
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