Susan McPherson · Marketing & Branding Expert

My late mother, Beryl Spector, spent much of her life working in the public relations industry. By 1986, she became nationally-known through her role as the president of the Broadcast and Promotion Marketing Executives and her various PR director positions at several PBS stations. Sadly, she was killed in a tragedy that ended her life at the very youthful age of 56. She left us with a legacy of amazing friendships and memories, and bestowed on me a lasting imprint from the world of PR. How amazing that even 25 years later, with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email and the Internet, so man…

What is Corporate Responsibility Communications? Is it cause-marketing? Is it the promotion of corporate philanthropy? Is it distributing a press release when your employees engage in a major volunteer program? Or is it the creation an annual sustainability report that showcases your firm’s environmental footprint, fair labor practices, and energy consumption, among other items? Actually, it is all of these and much, much more.

CSR Communications involves every key department of an organization and its practice is ongoing with significant long-term goals. The agenda must be developed from…

As a child, summer was always a time to run free – free from dreaded homework assignments, washing after dinner dishes, and free from the tedious chore of layering clothes to keep warm during harsh upstate NY winters. In my 20s and 30s, summer became a time of extra hours of daylight to celebrate with cocktails/wine with friends, long runs in the park and extra dog walk time. But over the last few years, summer has meant a zap of extra energy that I could pour into my passion of supporting nonprofit organizations.

This summer seems somewhat different, however. I can’t pinpoint the exac…

Hello and Happy World Ocean Day!

In commemoration of Jacques Cousteau’s 100th birthday this Friday, his eldest grandson, Fabien Cousteau [fabiencousteau.org], yesterday launched a new nonprofit, Plant A Fish [plantafish.org], in New York’s Hudson River. Choosing his own “backyard” as the starting location, Fabien, along with several UA New York Harbor School students “replanted” oysters under the harbor. Diving beneath the swirling green waves, they spent at least 45 minutes managing their task and it appears only Fabien was distracted by two Horsesho…

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Céline here in New York City between her whirl-wind schedule of speaking engagements, film projects and global environmental initiatives. We discussed the new non-profit she is launching, the exciting plans for her grandfather’s centennial celebration and her advice for 85Broad members who are starting entrepreneurial businesses.

Céline is a member of the first family of the Oceans, the Cousteaus, and credits her grandmother, Simone, as well as her grandfather with her strong belief that we are all interconnected with the world at large, no mat…

“We all spend our business days running to keep up—to manage our projects, to meet deadlines, to respond to emails, and to drive our company’s revenues. It is within the volunteer work that I do for Bpeace, that I somehow find an element of solace and inner peace, perhaps knowing that I’m helping those that face challenges that are insurmountable to my day-to-day minor bumps and hurdles.”

Bpeace is a nonprofit organization based in New York City with members located around the world. Like 85 Broads, Bpeace is an international volunteer network of business professionals and has been fort…