#1 Edna Ayme-Yahil_Women in PR with Ana Adi

The C-Suite – is that something you strive for or where you are invited in? And more importantly, as a communicator, how do you make yourself listened to once you get there? The management paradigm, of which Grunig and his excellence theory in public relations being its strongest representative, argue that for PR to truly matter, the senior PR council should not only be part of but actively be involved in decision-making. This shifts PR from a purely technical role to a strategic and managerial role. One way to get there, Grunig (and all his supporters argue) is through education, through professionalization. Now this debate started in the 1980 but is as current as ever and that is how do you get into PR and how do you succeed in PR? Are PR practitioners born communicators or they become so after pursuing either a degree, or some other sort of organized form of studying PR or comms. In a sense, studying PR would put someone right at the heart of what the profession requires but also would have them exposed to all the questions about how PR came to be and what the future looks like: what is PR’s role in society, ethical conundrums, loyalties. On the other hand, starting straight into PR and learning on the go as a trainee or apprentice one would be focused on solving problems and therefore be more atuned to ..maybe… how the world ticks. My guest in this episode has done Edna now heads MarComms at Panalpina in Switzerland. She is an American who studied both in the US and Europe. She is a traveler, an explorer, a mother, a writer, a strategist. And she is also the managing Vice-President of EACD, the European Association of Communication Directors. Founded in Brussels in 2006, the EACD is a network for communication professionals from all fields promoting diversity, overcoming cultural barriers and fostering professionalism in communications. And today, I will ask her how she got to where she’s at.