Richard C. Powell Jr. is Burson-Marsteller’s Chief Operating Officer Worldwide. Rick’s career has included senior management roles in communications, lobbying and venture capital firms. He has spent considerable time orchestrating global projects for multinational corporations, as well as providing political and communications advice to world leaders, including the Prime Minister of Italy, the President of Ukraine, the Prime Minister of the Republika of Skrpska.
At Burson-Marsteller, Rick oversees the firm’s operations and provides strategic advice to clients in the areas of corporate communications, issues management, crisis management and international affairs. His appointment as COO in August 2007 marked his return to Burson-Marsteller, where he worked from 1992-1999.
In addition to his operations role helping to manage Burson-Marsteller’s network of 137 offices and affiliates in 92 countries, Rick serves as senior counsel to several Burson-Marsteller clients, including Coca-Cola, HP and DeBeers. He has also managed international projects in China, India, Western Europe and Ukraine.
Prior to rejoining Burson-Marsteller, he served as Managing Director of Quinn Gillespie & Associates (QGA), one of Washington, DC’s leading public affairs and lobbying firms. At QGA, he managed the financial and operational functions of the firm and provided public affairs and corporate communications counsel to a variety of QGA clients, including Bank of America, HP, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Zurich Financial Services. He also managed QGA’s international practice and led projects in China, Brussels, Italy, Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia and Ivory Coast. Rick also helped guide the acquisition of QGA by WPP in 2004.
Rick joined QGA after working in venture capital management, first as co-founder and Managing Director of Washington, DC-based technology incubator, VenCatalyst, and then as Managing Director of the New York office for Idealab after Idealab’s acquisition of VenCatalyst.
Prior to founding VenCatalyst, Rick served as Chief Knowledge Officer and member of the Worldwide Operating Committee at Burson-Marsteller. He joined the firm in the Washington, DC office in 1992 where he focused on public affairs issues. In 1995, he moved to the firm’s New York office where he became chief of staff to the global COO. He was named Chief Knowledge Officer in 1998. As CKO, Rick developed the firm’s first intranet that was selected for permanent inclusion in archives of The Smithsonian Institute as example of “revolutionary advances in technology” and was featured in a national advertising campaign by Lotus Development Corp.
Rick is on the board of Global Action for Children (GAC), the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the National Federation of Independent Business’ (NFIB) Young Entrepreneur Foundation (YEF).
He is a native of Tennessee and graduated with a BBA in Business and a BA in Political Science from Southern Methodist University.