PRWeek’s annual Hall of Fame celebration is a unique event, honoring the legends of the PR industry who paved the way for those who came after them.
On Thursday evening we celebrate Johnson & Johnson’s Vanessa Broadhurst, Ruder Finn’s Kathy Bloomgarden, Real Chemistry’s Jim Weiss, FleishmanHillard’s John Saunders, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Torod Neptune and University of Florida’s Pat Ford.
Bloomgarden follows her father, David Finn, into the Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 2015. She was a real pioneer in opening up the Asian market to U.S. agencies and is fluent in Chinese. Ruder Finn has remained independent and reported global revenue just shy of $190 million in 2024 according to PRWeek’s latest Agency Business Report.
Her advice for those entering the PR industry is timely and timeless: “Stay curious and keep pushing the conversation further.” “The youngest person in the room brings an important perspective, which we need now more than ever. What matters most is mindset — adaptability, flexibility and a readiness to learn.”
Bloomgarden is a true trusted adviser to the C-suite who lights up a room with her energy and always strives to push on to what’s next and bring her stakeholders along with her.
Pat Ford spent 29 years at Burson-Marsteller, now known as Burson. He was a key adviser to and confidant of the firm’s legendary founder Harold Burson.
A fervent supporter of diversity, equity and inclusion, Ford has strong views about why corporations should stick with the commitments they stated after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, despite the backlash against them from the current administration.
“I’ve been a passionate advocate for inclusive workplaces for decades, and I firmly believe it must remain a strategic priority for every sector of business and society,” he told PRWeek. “Research consistently shows that stakeholders — from employees to investors — continue to support inclusive workplaces and authentic, values-driven messaging.”
In that context, Ford believes communicators’ roles are more vital than ever in making the business case for inclusive culture as a driver of performance, innovation and trust.
John Saunders is often described as the most stylish man in PR and did a fine job at stabilizing Omnicom’s largest PR firm FleishmanHillard and setting it up for growth over a nine-year period as global president and CEO. A former sports TV journalist in Ireland, Saunders has a super-impressive contacts book and once won a court case against Northern Irish musician Van Morrison (Google is your friend).
His advice to young people entering the industry is profound: “Learning resilience. I’ve lost more times than most, but you must just stay in the game sometimes.”
A proud Irishman, the local security detail in his new home of St. Louis gave him the codename Shamrock 1 when he was honored as Grand Marshall at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in the city in 2017. He is an avid supporter of an English soccer team called Everton, which I believe was successful in the 1980s, or was it the 1890s, I can never remember…
Torod Neptune has had a storied career leading comms and marketing across large global brands including Medtronic, Lenovo, Verizon and Bank of America. Like fellow Hall of Famers Frank Shaw from Microsoft, Corey duBrowa from Burson, Melissa Waggener Zorkin and Pam Edstrom, Neptune is an alum of storied Seattle HQed tech PR firm Waggener Edstrom.
He recently followed fellow honoree Ford into the world of academia where he will continue to deliver on his passion to help mentor the next generation of communicators.
When I first moved to the U.S. in 2010 to take over editorial leadership of PRWeek, Jim Weiss’ agency was known as WCG (WeissComm Group) and had posted annual revenue of $35 million in the calendar year 2009.
It was already growing quickly through organic and acquisitional growth, but fast-forward to 2024 and the firm’s current iteration, Real Chemistry, was the largest PR agency in the U.S. by revenue, at $616 million, and posted a global number of $665 million. That’s a growth of 19-fold over 15 years, an extraordinary achievement. And Weiss has been the primary driving force behind it.
It is bittersweet that his wife, Audra, a key partner in building the firm, died far too soon this January at the young age of 57. Her presence will most definitely be felt in the room on Thursday evening, even though she won’t be there physically to celebrate.
Finally, Vanessa Broadhurst from Johnson & Johnson is another representative of the healthcare and pharma industries on this year’s Hall of Fame roll of honor. Broadhurst is a big believer that comms must evolve from being reactive to proactive, especially in today’s geopolitical climate.
“We must be ready to anticipate changes and understand their impact on our businesses,” she says. “We need to be proactive business leaders and advisers who communicate effectively.”
It’s another stellar group of Hall of Famers to add to our roster, the 13th since PRWeek launched the initiative in 2013. These individuals certainly present the industry in a fine light and provide the role models that all of us can aspire to emulate.
The celebration takes place on Thursday evening and a special podcast episode featuring all the honorees will be available next week.
