Emmy and Peabody Award-Winning Journalist Betsy Stark Joins Ogilvy Public Relations as Managing Director

NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Four-time Emmy-winning business journalist Betsy Stark will join Ogilvy Public Relations (Ogilvy PR) in the newly created leadership role of Managing Director, Content and Media Strategy, the company announced today. The former ABC News business correspondent, who has consulted with the global communications firm for nearly a year, will advise Ogilvy clients on media strategy and oversee the creation of top-quality content.

"Betsy brings world-class talent, intelligence, integrity, and creativity to everything she does," said Ogilvy PR Global CEO Chris Graves. "Our clients are waking up to the need for every company to become a content company and create their own relevant and effective stories. Betsy ranks among the most distinguished in the world at crafting clear and powerful stories that connect with people."

Stark will also serve as senior counsel to Ogilvy clients, noted Graves, adding that "Betsy has gone one-on-one with countless of the world's most influential people, from global CEOs to the President of the United States, and now she'll bring that insight and experience to supporting clients in all aspects of media strategy."

In her new assignment, Stark will partner with Ogilvy & Mather colleagues across all disciplines, and in traditional as well as social media, to create content that differentiates and drives clients' brands, reputations and businesses. 

"Many important stories never get told in traditional media," says Stark. "Sometimes they're too complicated, sometimes they're deliberately ignored, sometimes they are simply overlooked. That creates a valuable opportunity to fill the vacuum," she says, "but it also demands that the content we create for our clients meets the highest standards of quality and credibility to serve their brands and reputations well. Ogilvy has a culture of commitment to high standards and to ideas based on ideals.  It makes for a very natural and happy second act to my career."

As the Business Correspondent for ABC News, Stark led the network's coverage of business and the economy for more than 12 years, spanning an era from record prosperity to epic calamity.  She was a familiar face to millions of television viewers, demystifying the arcane world of Wall Street and giving voice to kitchen-table concerns on Main Street.  Reporting alongside some of television's biggest personalities, she appeared on "World News" with Peter Jennings and Charles Gibson, "Good Morning America," "This Week," and other ABC News programs. Her award-winning work includes the first-ever Business Emmy for her enterprise reporting on "The Broken Pension Promise" and a national Emmy for her contributions to ABC's team coverage of "The Inauguration of Barack Obama."  She is the winner of two prestigious George Foster Peabody awards, one for her contributions to ABC's coverage of "9/11" and a second for her participation in "ABC 2000," the network's coverage of the dawn of the new millennium. 

Stark's distinguished career in journalism also includes work for Dow Jones, the PBS "NewsHour," and the long-running business news program, "The Wall Street Journal Report." She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Smith College and has been named one of its most Notable Alumnae.  She is the mother of two children, Ben and Sara, and lives in New York City.

About Ogilvy Public Relations
­­­­­­­­­­­Ogilvy Public Relations (Ogilvy PR) is a global, multi-disciplinary communications leader operating in more than 80 offices across six continents. In 2011, Ogilvy won more Cannes PR Lions than any other agency worldwide, was named Global Digital/Social Consultancy of the Year by the Holmes Report, won Specialist Agency of the Year in Asia Pacific (Campaign Asia), and won the WPP global, top award (WPPed Cream, Creme de la Creme) for the fourth time in five years. Ogilvy PR integrates deeply with all Ogilvy & Mather disciplines (advertising, direct marketing, activation, promotional, digital and entertainment) through the proprietary Ogilvy Fusion™ approach to delivering comprehensive, business solutions through content creation, community building, and communications with measurable results. Ogilvy PR is a unit of Ogilvy & Mather, a WPP company (NASDAQ: WPPGY), one of the world's largest communications services groups.  For more information, visit our Web site at www.ogilvypr.com or follow us on Twitter at @ogilvypr.

SOURCE Ogilvy Public Relations