Susan McPherson is a senior vice president at Fenton, the nation’s leading public interest communications firm, where she focuses on corporate responsibility programs for the firm’s clientele and regularly writes and speaks in public on sustainability communications, the connections between CSR and social media, and the value of public/private partnerships. She has more than 20 years experience in marketing, public relations, CSR communications and business development.
Prior to joining Fenton, McPherson was vice president, CSR services at PR Newswire, a leading provider of electronic news distribution, media targeting, and measurement and multimedia services. In this role, she was responsible for creating a series of product offerings for companies to better communicate their CSR activities with stakeholders in addition to generating new business for the newswire from CSR professionals. She also managed business partnerships between PR Newswire and its sister UBM companies, such as TechWeb, CMP Medica, UBM International. Earlier roles with the company included assisting in development of the firm’s first bureaus in China (Beijing and Shanghai) and the launch of MediaSense, a media measurement tool. Prior to her career at PR Newswire, she worked in both the editorial and marketing departments of USA Today.
McPherson holds a B.A in history from the State University of New York at Albany and conducted graduate studies at Boston University’s College of Communications with a focus on broadcast journalism. She serves on the board of Bpeace, an organization dedicated to assisting women in regions of conflict and post-conflict start businesses. Her primary board responsibility is running the NGO’s annual largest fundraising event which has raised over $500,000 during the last three years. She also is a member of Echoing Green’s Social Investment Council, Social Media Week’s New York Advisory Council and the New York Leadership team for 85Broads. Additionally, she serves as an adviser to Plant A Fish (a new nonprofit created by Fabien Cousteau) and The OpEd Project. Prior to moving to New York in 2003, McPherson lived in Seattle, where she was actively involved in FareStart, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing job and life-skills training to the disadvantaged.