The USC Annenberg School of Journalism’s Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center will be led by Fred Cook, CEO of Golin, one of the world’s largest public relations agencies, it was announced Tuesday.
“This is the first time USC Annenberg has had an active CEO as center director,” said Willow Bay, the journalism school’s director. “We are thrilled to have someone with Fred’s credentials and experience join our team.”
Cook will also become a professor in PR studies, with a focus on innovation and leadership.
He plans to continue as CEO of Golin.
“I’ve spent the past 30 years building one of the most successful PR firms in the business through innovation and experimentation,” Cook said. “I’m looking forward to applying what I’ve learned in the agency world at a prestigious school like USC Annenberg. I’m very impressed by their faculty, their vision and their ambition.”
Cook replaces Jerry Swerling, a principal of the PR consultancy Swerling and Associates, who retired from USC at the end of the 2014-15 academic year.
The Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center’s stated mission is “advancing the study, practice and value of the public relations profession by conducting practical, applied research in partnership with other visionary organizations.”
“USC Annenberg is intensely focused on being at the forefront of industry trends to guarantee our graduates are ready to lead in the rapidly changing world of communications,” said USC Annenberg’s Dean Ernest J. Wilson III. “Fred’s track record and commitment to constant innovation during this dynamic era matches our own.”
Under Cook’s leadership, Golin has been voted agency of the year more than a dozen times, and he has been named one of the most powerful people in PR. Four years ago, Cook replaced Golin’s traditional hierarchical structure with a radical new model called g4, where teams of specialists deliver insights, ideas, engagement and integration to their clients.
In 2014, Cook authored “Improvise – Unorthodox Career Advice from an Unlikely CEO,” in which he shares the wisdom he learned as a cabin boy on a Norwegian tanker, a doorman at a five-star hotel and a chauffeur for drunks.
— Wire reports