The Institute for Public Relations is thrilled to announce four new Trustees to the Board:
- Susan Donlan, Chief Communications Officer, KeyBank
- Robert Dowling, Founder and CEO, Hudson Cutler & Company
- Alison Lubert, SVP Corporate Communications, Green Dot Corporation
- Tim Marklein, Founder and CEO, Big Valley Marketing
Susan Donlan
Chief Communications Officer
KeyBank
In this role Susan leads a team of communications professionals who deliver internal communications, media relations, and reputation management strategies for the enterprise.
Prior to joining Key, Susan served as Vice President of Corporate Communications at TD Bank Group, where she provided strategic communications support and counsel to a number of the bank’s businesses, including the Canadian retail businesses.
With more than 20 years of corporate communications experience, Susan has an extensive track record in managing high-profile, complex, sensitive, and controversial issues across media relations, reputation management, government relations, community relations, and employee communications.
Before beginning her career in banking, Susan held a range of positions in the Canadian government, including serving as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Housing and Labour.
Susan attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts (Hon.). Outside of work, Susan is active in the community including serving as incoming Chair of the Board of Directors for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. She lives in Cleveland with her husband and children.
Robert Dowling
Founder and CEO
Hudson Cutler & Company
Robert Dowling is founder and CEO of Hudson Cutler, an award-winning brand marketing agency recognized for its work for clients including IBM, BNY Mellon, Citizens Bank, BMW, Edrington and others. Hudson Cutler was named New Agency of the Year by Holmes Report (Provoke) in 2016 and Agency of the Year by PR Week in 2019.
Throughout his career, Robert has helped create and build brands including Amazon, Daring Foods and, Samsung Mobile. He has repositioned and elevated the profile of many of the world’s leading companies such as Samsung, L’Oreal and IBM, among others. Robert is a recognized connector, known for bringing companies and communities together around areas of common interest. He was included in Holmes Report (Provoke) top 25 innovators.
Robert is cofounder of Candy & Flower, a public relations agency focused on branding, advocacy and social justice reform in the cannabis industry, and has held senior positionss including president at Omnicom flagship agency FleishmanHillard and president at IPG agency Weber Shandwick. He serves on numerous boards including BOMB Magazine, The Executive Council and New York Venture Capital Association.
Alison Lubert
Senior Vice President Corporate Communications
Green Dot Corporation
Alison is head of corporate communications at Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) a leading digital bank and financial technology company that delivers seamless, secure access to banking and payment solutions for a wide range of businesses and consumers nationwide.
In this role, Alison leads a team responsible for building and protecting the company’s reputation through media relations and thought leadership, executive and employee communications and events, and other channels that support and shape the company’s reputation.
With more than two decades of experience in communications and public relations, Alison has experience in a variety of sectors spanning financial services, technology, telecommunications and more. Before joining Green Dot in 2020, Alison spent seven years at Capital One where she led public relations for a variety of business units and initiatives including retail investing, West Coast expansion and recruiting, small business bank and credit card, and ultimately all B2B products and services, including commercial banking. From 2007 to 2011, Alison worked on the corporate communications team at E*TRADE where she led proactive PR and communications. Prior to that, she spent her early career on the agency side, most recently at Burson-Marsteller (now “Burson”), one of the largest multinational public relations firms in the world, where she led public relations for Accenture’s outsourcing business unit.
Alison is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations and a minor in Business Administration. She lives in New York with her husband and two sons.
Tim Marklein
Founder & CEO
Big Valley Marketing
Tim Marklein is an award-winning Silicon Valley marketer and communicator with 25+ years of experience helping clients launch businesses, create categories, build reputations and grow revenues. He is the founder and CEO of Big Valley Marketing, which has become one of the fastest-growing private companies in America (Inc. 5000). Big Valley represents a mix of startups, unicorns and Fortune 500 technology companies – and recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary delivering value and impact via its unique “team of experts” operating model focused on brand strategy, market intelligence, content marketing, public relations and digital activation.
As a consultant and in-house executive, Tim has worked closely with pioneers and leaders across technology, healthcare, consumer and B2B industries. Before founding Big Valley, Tim led two fast-growing and innovative practices (Technology and Analytics) for W2O Group. He previously led Weber Shandwick’s Northern California business and founded the agency’s Measurement & Strategy practice, where he served as an architect behind the industry’s first global PR measurement standards. Tim previously led global public relations for HP’s $30 billion enterprise business and served as director of corporate PR following the HP-Compaq merger. He earlier spent 10 years at two pioneering Silicon Valley agencies – Applied Communications and Jennings & Company – that broke new ground in the application of research, competitive dynamics and strategy to communications challenges.
Tim is an active contributor to industry standards and next practices. He has served in various industry leadership roles via the Institute for PR’s Measurement Commission, PR Council and AMEC, among others. He was recently recognized as one of the industry’s leading innovators (PRovoke Media’s Innovator 25) and was previously named to the PR Measurement Hall of Fame. Tim is a frequent speaker and writer on marketing strategy, competitive positioning, communications practices, and translating insights into action.
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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Media Contact:
Brittany Higginbotham
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brittany@instituteforpr.org
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