Ellen Ryan Mardiks
Ellen Ryan Mardiks
Vice Chairman
emardiks@golinharris.com
I recently celebrated my 25th anniversary at GolinHarris. That seems like a long time until you compare it to the tenure of our Chairman, Al Golin, who started this great company 52 years ago. I don’t think I’ll catch up to Al, but as long as I sit in the office next to his that’s fine with me.
Since the day I walked through these doors I've had great opportunities to work with clients anyone would die for: McDonald’s, Levi’s, J&J, Unilever, Walmart. I grew up in the Consumer Marketing space but then learned to apply those skills and a marketing point of view to Corporate Positioning and Healthcare.
I am a passionate believer in the power of public relations to build and reposition brands. I’ll speak about the value of our discipline to anyone who will listen. I’ve helped develop some tools to put that power to work, including Brandgauge, which evaluates the health of corporate and product brands and then prescribes the right public relations solution to improve it.
It’s been a great ride to see what’s happened to public relations since I became part of the business a few decades ago. It’s changing every day, becoming more important and influential and impactful. Social media is our next frontier and we’ve just scratched the surface.
It’s an exciting time to be a brand builder in the PR space.
Client Experience
McDonald’s
Walmart
Unilever
Kaiser Permanente
GSK
Florida Dept. of Citrus
Areas of Expertise
Brand Marketing
Corporate Positioning
Consumer Healthcare
What’s on my iPod, Kindle and TiVo
Everything from Bruce Springsteen, anything by Barbara Kingsolver, and every episode of Lost
My Favorite Pastimes
Escaping to the Northwoods of Wisconsin
My Favorite Quote
“Trust isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”– Al Golin