Global public relations leader Porter Novelli (PN) announced that Eddie Garrett has joined as Executive Vice President, Global Digital Strategies. Against today’s fully digital landscape, Garrett will focus on building significant behavior change programs for clients across the PN network. He will be based in Chicago and will report to Nick Propper, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Client Officer.
“Building fully integrated teams is critical to quickly leverage the significant opportunities that this volatile marketplace is creating for our clients. Equally, being able to mitigate risk in real time is a top priority,” said Propper. “As we continue to re-shape the way we approach our clients’ challenges, hiring a disproportionate amount of genuinely diverse thinkers from a multitude of complementary backgrounds, world class leadership talent like Eddie have an increasingly important role in our agency and a significantly bigger platform on which to operate.”
Garrett, a former Porter Novelli employee and Director of the digital practice in Washington, D.C., has more than 20 years of experience in media and communications. Prior to rejoining the agency, Garrett was Executive Vice President, Head of Strategy at Weber Shandwick, where he led a diverse team of strategic planners, data analysts and digital strategists. He previously spent three years at Edelman, as an EVP in the consumer marketing practice and a SVP in the digital strategy group. Garrett’s client experience includes ConAgra Foods, Jim Beam, the IRS, Disney Institute and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
In his new role, Garrett will bridge the significant capability PN has in research, strategic planning, analytics and conceptual creative with the agency’s business consultancy and channel expertise to produce digitally focused and commercially impactful campaigns.
“I’m thrilled to return to my agency roots and re-join an organization that not only pioneered communications for behavior change, but continues to re-shape and lead the way strategic communications impact and drive business value,” said Garrett. “This is an exciting time to be at Porter Novelli and I can’t wait to get started.”
Garrett earned both a bachelor’s degree in science and a master’s degree in business administration from The University of Georgia. He currently sits on the university’s Board of Trustees for the Grady College of Journalism and serves as 2017 Chairperson for Peabody Awards Board of Jurors.