Gainesville, Fla. – The Institute for Public Relations is thrilled to announce the addition of four new Trustees to its Board:
— Laura Duda, Senior Vice President, and Chief Communications Officer, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
— Heather Kernahan, Chief Executive Officer, Hotwire Global
— Steffen Kurzawa, Chief Communications Officer, Sandoz
— Kristena Lucky, EVP, Brand Solutions Practice Lead, North America, BCW
Laura Duda
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Senior Vice President & Chief Communications Officer
Laura Duda is Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. As the chief communications officer, Duda leads all internal and external communications for the company, including public and media relations, employee communications, corporate reputation management, philanthropy, and community relations, as well as Goodyear’s fleet of world-famous airships.
Duda joined Goodyear in 2016, serving as Vice President of Communications for the company’s Americas business unit. Before joining Goodyear, Duda led corporate, utility, and commercial communications for Chicago, Ill.-based Exelon Corporation and corporate and utility communications for Tampa, Fla.-based TECO Energy, Inc.
Raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Duda attended Western Carolina University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Writing & Editing. She later received her Master of Arts degree in Mass Communication from University of Florida and her Master of Business Administration degree from The University of Tampa. She is accredited in Public Relations and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and a graduate of Leadership Tampa, Leadership Greater Chicago, and Leadership Akron.
In 2020, Duda was named to the National Diversity Council’s Power 50, honoring women in the C-suite from top corporations who endeavor to improve not just departments and companies, but communities as well. She was also named to PR Week’s 2021 Hall of Femme, recognizing inspiring women who set the bar higher within their organizations, nominated by their peers and colleagues. Duda was Goodyear’s 2020 Employee Resource Group executive sponsor of the year for her work with the company’s Asia India Middle East (AIM) ERG. Duda is a board member of the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition and a Trustee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Heather Kernahan
Hotwire Global
Global Chief Executive Officer
Heather Kernahan is the Global CEO of Hotwire and a global marketing expert and business leader who has been featured in Fast Company, Fortune, Thrive Global, Biz Women, PRWeek, and Adweek. She currently serves as the Global CEO of Hotwire, an award-winning global tech communications consultancy. She was named one of the 2020 SF Business Times 100 Most Influential Women and is Board Chair of The PR Council, the PR industry’s premier association and advocacy group. Heather is currently writing a new business book on leadership to be published in early 2022.
Kernahan joined Hotwire in 2013. Most recently, in her role as CEO, North America, she led US offices in San Francisco, New York, and Minneapolis, in addition to overseeing Australia. As a member of the Hotwire global leadership team, she has been the driving force behind Hotwire’s three-year business strategy to expand the business which has led to winning 2021 Tech Agency of the Year from Provoke Media. Kernahan has challenged the status quo for Hotwire and has allowed the firm to think further into the future. She leads a team of consultants to technology leaders that include Pinterest, eBay, McAfee, Adobe, Avaya, and Kiva.
Kernahan is the executive sponsor of Hotwire’s three-year DEI strategy which includes the Hotwire Ignite Possibilities Program, a $1M pro bono commitment for communications services to tech organizations that are minority lead and/or provide services or benefits for minority communities. She is also the co-founder of the Say Gap, an industry program with The PR Council that provides free media and speaker training to women and leaders of color. Outside of Hotwire, Kernahan is a strategic advisor and mentor to many startups through NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center and with Women’s Startup Lab, Women to Watch Media, Boatsetter, and the LAGRANT Foundation. She is also an investment partner with Portfolia.
She is a sought-after speaker on marketing and business leadership topics. Kernahan’s most recent speaking events include:
— Fortune Global Forum – Innovation on the Fast Track
— Ragan’s The Future of Communications – The Future of Expert Voices
— International PRSA Conference – keynote panel on future trends for communications
— Women Future Conference – keynote speaker on the power of influence
— NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center – keynote speaker on unlocking authentic leadership
— Connection Silicon Valley – Finding Your First Enterprise Customer
— National Investor Relations Institute – Pre-IPO Readiness
— The Holmes Report (PRovoke) Global PR Summit – panel on M&A in the communications industry
— Chief – workshop presenter on High Stakes Leadership
— Tech in Motion – keynote speaker at Tech in Motion
— Healthcare Business Women’s Association – workshop presenter on building your personal brand
— PRSA Silicon Valley – opening speaker on the Measurement that Matters to CMOs
Prior to Hotwire, Kernahan held senior marketing and leadership roles at Enphase Energy and Autodesk. She has focused on integrated brand communications strategies including campaign development, corporate marketing, product marketing, IPO, and M&A communications strategy.
Kernahan received her Master’s in Business Administration in Sustainable Enterprise from Dominican University of California.
Steffen Kurzawa
Sandoz
Chief Communications Officer
Steffen Kurzawa is Chief Communications Officer at Sandoz, a global leader in generic medicines and biopharmaceuticals. Reporting to the Sandoz CEO, he leads the company’s global communications and engagement organization, including internal and external communications as well as communications strategy, content creation, stakeholder engagement, traditional and social media, and corporate responsibility. In his role, Steffen is a member of the Sandoz Executive Committee and the Novartis Global Communications & Engagement Leadership Team.
An award-winning communications executive with 25 years of experience in journalism and corporate communications, Steffen is a strong believer in the power of youth movements. He has championed a number of globally recognized engagement programs in the areas of environmental protection, health education, and agriculture, including a worldwide public-private partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program, a global Youth Agriculture Summit, and the Sandoz Healthcare Access Challenge. In his work, Steffen looks for “win-win” partnerships to bring the corporate and public sectors together to join forces to drive towards better outcomes in health, nutrition, poverty reduction, and education.
Steffen has studied economics at the University of Cologne and worked as a journalist for various print and audiovisual media before taking on a corporate role. Prior to joining Sandoz in 2015, he worked for Bayer and held positions of increasing responsibility including Regional Director of Communications Asia Pacific, Head of International PR and Media Relations as well as Global Head of Communications & Public Affairs at Bayer CropScience. He has worked and lived in Germany, Japan, and Singapore. His current role as Chief Communications Officer Sandoz is based in Switzerland.
Kristena Lucky
BCW
EVP, Brand Solutions Practice Lead, North America
Kristena Lucky is the Executive Vice President, Brand Solutions Practice Lead, North America with BCW. In this role, she is responsible for setting the strategic vision and operationalization plan for this practice group. She also serves as global client lead for Colgate-Palmolive. She joins the agency coming most recently from Edelman where she was an Executive Vice President/U.S. Brand Client Strategist. While there, Kristena also played a dual role of leading DEI for the Edelman Chicago office—driving and spearheading efforts to recruit and retain diverse talent while also enhancing the agency’s reputation in the local marketplace.
Over the course of her successful career, Kristena has been lauded for delivering best-in-class brand marketing programs for many Fortune500 brands—deploying a multitude of levers to engage with stakeholders. However, brand purpose is at the heart of what she loves to do. She is a firm believer that there has to be a clear and compelling value exchange in brand marketing—that brands need to make a difference in people’s lives otherwise why should they bother engaging with the brand.
As a Vice President, Group Account Director with Burrell Communications, the nation’s oldest and leading Black marketing agency, she helped launch McDonald’s McCafe and provided strategic counsel on a number of big brands such as Eli Lilly and Toyota that were developing and executing programs targeted to the Black community. One highlight of her career is the work she did for Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts, in which she helped launch the very successful Disney’s Dreamers Academy program.
Additionally, Kristena has extensive brand management experience having achieved success as a Marketing Manager for global corporations – Accenture and Motorola. While at Motorola she was charged with developing engaging, integrated go-to-market plans to launch consumer products, driving demand for the brand, and most importantly, sales of mobile products. Earlier in her career, Kristena helped drive results for a marketing agency, Arc Worldwide (f/k/a Frankel.), working on clients including Frito-Lay, USPS, and McDonald’s.
She is a graduate of Michigan State University and now lives in Dallas with her husband, seven-year-old daughter, and eleven-year-old Maltipoo. Kristena actively helps create more opportunities and seats at the table for diverse marketing and communications experts. It’s not a nice thing to do, but a must-do. She wants to show her young daughter that anything and everything is possible.
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.
