Susan McPherson is a serial connector, passionate cause marketer, angel investor, and corporate responsibility expert. She is the founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, a communications consultancy focusing on the intersection between brands and social good, providing storytelling, partnership creation and visibility to corporations, NGOs and social enterprises including Intel, Girl Rising, Positive Luxury, IF Hummingbird Foundation, THNK, The School of Creative Leadership and Plum Alley. She’s a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Triple Pundit and Forbes and has 25+ years experience in marketing, public relations, and sustainability communications. She is a featured speaker at industry events including Net Impact, Center for Corporate Citizenship’s Annual Summit, DLD, Sustainable Brands, and Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy’s Summit. McPherson founded and hosts the bi-weekly #CSRChat on Twitter.
Currently, McPherson invests in, and advises technology start-ups, including ZADY, TheLi.st, Lover.ly, News Deeply and The Daily Muse. She serves on the boards of USA for UNHCR, Girl Rising, a social action campaign/platform funded by Intel to expand girls’ education in the developing world, The PVBLIC Foundation and served on the board of Bpeace, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting women in regions of conflict and post-conflict start businesses from 2006-2012. She is also a member Social Media Week’s New York Advisory Council and a contributor/fundraiser to Mission 31. Additionally, she serves as an adviser to several non-profits, including Girls Who Code, She’s The First, The Adventure Project, and The OpEd Project. Recently, McPherson was selected as a Vital Voices global corporate ambassador and was named as one of 40 Women to Watch Over 40, Fortune’s 55 Most Influential Women on Twitter, and Fast Company’s 25 Smartest Women of Twitter.
Episode Details:
In this episode, we featured Susan McPherson of McPherson Strategies. Susan shares why she is so passionate about corporate responsibility and social impact, and how a business’s focus in either of these two areas could help that business advance. We also discuss how the general public can get involved in corporate responsibility and social impact through activist activities, although Susan makes a distinction between activism and “slacktivism.” Susan then explains how her passion for corporate responsibility and social impact has translated into her work through consulting within McPherson Strategies and as an angel investor.
