NEW YORK, October 26—Porter Novelli has hired former Advertising Council president Ruth Wooden to serve as senior counselor and chair of Porter Novelli’s public-private partnership initiatives. Her responsibilities include strategic philanthropy, social advertising and marketing, and the firm’s recently launched cause-related marketing practice.
 
Wooden will concentrate on planning and business development in all these areas, including PN’s CauseWorks, a new service designed to help corporations develop strategic philanthropic initiatives and to build effective cause-related marketing programs.
 
“Every organization today, public and private, is seeking to develop productive partnerships to further their business goals,” says PN chief executive Bob Druckenmiller. “Wooden’s expertise in both marketing and public relations, and her success in partnering corporations and non-profit organizations, brings our clients the seasoned experience and creative insights that are more in demand than ever.”
 
Wooden was Advertising Council president from 1987 until 1999. She launched Commitment 2000 for the Advertising Council in 1995, a 10-year program that refocused the majority of the Councils’ donated and creative media resources to the needs of children. She is active in many nonprofit organizations, including Phoenix House Foundation, Civic Ventures, CARE, Research!America, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, and the National Parenting Association.
 
“Porter Novelli’s marketing-based approach to public relations is closely aligned with values that have made the firm a leader in social marketing,” says “This is a great opportunity to continue to practice my specialties on behalf of important social causes and to help Porter Novelli leadership form new corporate and nonprofit partnerships.”