Weber Shandwick Hires Chad Boettcher as Senior Vice President for Corporate Responsibility

    - Former Nike, Inc., Global CR Lead and MTV Senior Director To Drive

 Consumer Brand Advocacy and Engagement Via Digital and Social Networking -



    NEW YORK, July 15 /EMWNews/ -- Weber Shandwick today announced the

addition of Chad Boettcher as senior vice president, corporate

responsibility (CR). Based in New York, Boettcher will work with the

company's global team on developing integrated corporate responsibility

programs that engage consumers and other key constituencies with a focus on

digital and social networking applications. He reports to Gail Heimann,

president, Weber Shandwick New York and co-chair of the firm's global

consumer marketing practice.



    Boettcher brings considerable global experience in the CR space, most

recently serving as the global director of CR for Nike, Inc. While at Nike,

he developed innovative CR programs focused on connecting consumers

worldwide across digital platforms and led a global team on the company's

"4c's -- Compliance, Community (Let Me Play), Climate Change and Considered

Design."



    Prior to Nike, Boettcher was the senior director for strategic

partnerships and public affairs at MTV: Music Television. At MTV, he helped

develop several Emmy-Award winning pro-social campaigns including Choose or

Loose, Fight For Your Rights, think MTV and Alternative Spring Break and

created funding partnerships with foundations, non-profit organizations,

corporations and government agencies to promote, inform and broaden

pro-social campaigns with organizations such as The Bill and Melinda Gates

Foundation, the United Nations, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the United

Way.



    "We are excited to have Chad's vast experience in innovation and

leadership to further deepen corporate responsibility initiatives that

place the consumer at the forefront for our clients," said Gail Heimann.

"The right corporate responsibility approach is a critical component for

any brand looking to build advocacy and ethical and sustainable branding

platforms for future generations of consumers."



    Commenting on his appointment, Chad Boettcher said: "I am thrilled to

be joining Weber Shandwick and working with an award-winning team that has

firmly established itself in the global corporate responsibility space.

With companies seeing the evolution of smart CR as a way to build

meaningful relationships with consumers, there is a tremendous opportunity

to engage consumers as brand advocates and further enhance a brand's social

relevance, especially in the digital and social networking space."

    About Weber Shandwick



    Weber Shandwick is one of the world's leading global public relations

firms with offices in major media, business and government capitals around

the world. The firm specializes in strategic marketing communications,

media relations, public affairs, reputation management, and crisis and

issues management. It also offers corporate communications counseling

services. The firm provides specialized integrated services including Web

relations, advocacy advertising, market research and visual communications.

Weber Shandwick received the highest client-satisfaction honors in the 2007

Agency Excellence Survey by PRWeek U.S. and in 2006, was named Large PR

Firm of the Year (PR News U.S.), European Consultancy of the Year (The

Holmes Report) and Network of the Year (Asia Pacific PR Awards). The firm

also won the 2005, 2006 and 2007 United Nations Grand Award for Outstanding

Achievement in Public Relations. To learn more, please visit

http://www.webershandwick.com.



    Weber Shandwick is a unit of The Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), which

is one of the world's leading organizations of advertising agencies and

marketing services companies.






     Contact:

     Jennifer Norton

     Weber Shandwick

     212-445-8314

     [email protected]