Views from the C-Suite

& the Role of PR in Today’s Corporate World

with Arunas Chesonis

How do corporate executives view the role of public relations in their organizations?

What aspects of internal and external communication does a CEO consider most important?

Is the prevalence of social media making an impact on today’s corporate decision makers?

Guest speaker Arunas Chesonis received the CEO of the Year Award from the Rochester PRSA Chapter during its PRism Awards event in June 2011 in recognition of his support for the importance of public relations as chairman and CEO of PAETEC Holding Corp., the company he founded in 1998. Following the acquisition of PAETEC by Windstream Corp., Chesonis left the telcom industry to become CEO and Chairman of the Board for Sweetwater Energy.

In the nomination of Arunas Chesonis for CEO of the Year, he was described as seeing public relations “as a strategic management function, a vital tool to convey the messages of the company.” Employee communication was also listed as being very important to Chesonis with his weekly meetings for more than 4,000 PAETEC employees via videoconference nearly always starting with the phrase, “On the PR front.”

Among his many other awards, Chesonis has received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Herbert W. Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award from theCollegeofBusinessat RIT, and election to the Rochester Business Hall of Fame. In 2011, FierceTelecom placed him on its  list of the 15 Most Powerful People in Wireline Telecom.

On Thursday, March 22, Arunas Chesonis will share his personal perspective of life in the C-Suite, including communication challenges and rewards facing corporate executives.

Then it will be your turn to ask questions you might like to raise with your own CEO, president, or executive director but haven’t had the opportunity, or perhaps the nerve, to ask! For example: What would he consider to be his best communication moves? What have been his biggest communication blunders?

Don’t miss this opportunity to start your day

with an insider’s view of public relations from the C-Suite!