Barri Rafferty, Senior Partner and Director, New York

Barri Rafferty is a Senior Partner and the Director of Ketchum New York. She is also a member of Ketchum’s Executive Committee and oversees the global digital transformation of the agency as head of Ketchum Digital, the Web design and development, audio and video production, and graphic design and print media unit of Ketchum that includes a global network of digital strategists. Barri counsels key clients on integrated communications, branding initiatives, and corporate reputation, and leveraging experiential, online, and mainstream communications tactics.

 

Before becoming Director of the New York office in September 2005, Barri served as Director of Ketchum South, which includes Ketchum’s Atlanta and Dallas offices. Prior to this role, Barri served as Director of Ketchum’s Global Brand Marketing Practice, for which she counseled clients in all facets of branding, including integrated programming, new product launches, reputation management and global strategy. She also was previously one of the Associate Directors of the New York office. In addition to these roles, Barri helped spearhead the creation of the agency’s multicultural unit and Ketchum Entertainment, Ketchum’s boutique firm that integrates public relations with entertainment, lifestyle and pop-culture marketing.

 

During her tenure, Barri has counseled and worked with many industry-leading companies, such as Monster, The Home Depot, Kodak, DuPont, Cingular Wireless, Equifax, Philips, Levi Strauss & Company, Johnson & Johnson, and Frito-Lay. She has led award-winning projects that include Kodak’s “Inkjet” launch, Maxwell House’s “Build A Home America” program, Levi’s “Semester Online,” Tostitos’ “Chip Drop,” Staples’ “10th Anniversary,” Wisk’s “Dirty Secrets and Clean Facts,” and Hallmark’s “When You Care Enough To Send The Very Best.”

 

Before joining Ketchum, Barri helped lead Lippe Taylor, an agency specializing in beauty, where she oversaw accounts that included Maybelline, Matrix, Escada Beaute, and J.F. Lazartigue. She also was a client herself, working at Slim-Fast Foods Company at its height. From leveraging celebrity testimonials, to launching nine product extensions in two years, to overseeing the Slim-Fast magazine, she helped drive the communications strategy for the ubiquitous brand in the 80s.

 

Barri began her career in New York at Burson-Marsteller public relations agency, where she worked on Owens-Corning Fiberglas and The Tile Council of America. Before that, she worked in Boston at Cone Communications, where she managed all phases of a national consumer education campaign for Bausch & Lomb.

 

Barri earned a master’s degree in corporate communications from Boston University and an undergraduate degree in communications from Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University. She is a member of New York Women in Communications, a past president of the Public Relations Society of America New York Chapter, and a Capstone adviser for New York University’s graduate school program.