In a whirlwind of activity at our press time Tuesday, moves were made in some of the industry’s top jobs.
First, one of the industry’s supreme storytellers, Corey duBrowa, late of Starbucks and most recently Salesforce, is departing the latter company to join Google as VP of global communications and public affairs (picture 2, page 1).
duBrowa will replace the departed Jessica Powell, oversee a staff of 200 and report to CEO Sundar Pichai, according to media reports. duBrowa joined Salesforce in June 2017 after spending nearly a decade with Starbucks.
Arguably the most celebrated communicator in the business, the then-Arthur W. Page Society, now simply Page, chose duBrowa as the first guest for its podcast series last year ( PRN, March 6 and April 3, 2017).
While he was CCO at Starbucks, duBrowa was credited with creating one of the earliest brand newsrooms, essentially building a staff of communicators who acted as a news-gathering and news-distribution operation. In addition to creating stories media could use, duBrowa and his team crafted stories about Starbucks employees and the brand’s public affairs efforts. Those stories were aimed at customers, who could read them as they waited in line for their drinks. When we asked duBrowa last year to name two things that keep him up at night he answered fake news and trust.
“What’s the old phrase? ‘A lie can travel around the world in the time it takes the truth to tie its shoes.’ That’s never been truer than it is today,” duBrowa told us then. “So telling your truth, your way, is increasingly critical to our brand stewardship role.”
Regarding trust, duBrowa noted the declines in trust found in Edelman’s annual trust barometer. The counter to the fall in public trust in media, government, NGOs and business, he said, is employees’ voices “are emerging around the world as the most trusted within any given company.” This was part of the reasoning behind duBrowa’s emphasis on promoting the stories of Starbucks employees.
Another huge job made news at our deadline as IBM’s CMO Michael Mendenhall exited to join TriNet as SVP, CMO, and CCO. Mendenhall was with IBM for less than one year. Jon Iwata, IBM’s veteran head of communications, retired in December. Ray Day replaced him and is recasting his team.
Last, AMEC, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, is looking for a new chief executive as Barry Leggetter said late Monday he is stepping down in December after 11 years. AMEC chair Richard Bagnall is heading the CEO search committee.