Wells Fargo & Company announced Barri Rafferty will join the company to lead the Corporate Communications function. She will report to Bill Daley, Vice Chairman of Public Affairs, and sit on the company’s Management Committee.

“Barri is a strategic and collaborative leader with deep experience in communications strategy, change management, brand marketing, and business transformation,” said Daley. “We look forward to her leadership as we redefine the company’s culture, voice and narrative.”

Rafferty joins Wells Fargo from Ketchum, where she was the agency’s President and CEO — the first woman at the time to be the CEO of a top-five public relations agency. Her accomplishments as CEO at Ketchum include repositioning the agency to better adapt to meet the needs and challenges of today’s global and digital marketplace. Under her leadership, the agency won significant recognition, including being the most-awarded PR firm at Cannes 2019, 2018 and 2017.

A strong advocate of diversity and inclusion, Rafferty is a founding member of Omniwomen — an initiative to increase the number, seniority, and influence of women in leadership roles — and she has driven policy change at Ketchum to create a more inclusive workplace. She has spoken on gender parity and unconscious bias at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Dalian, China, as well as at TEDxEast.

“I look forward to working closely with the new leadership team to help our stakeholders understand the incredible transformation underway at this iconic company,” Rafferty said.

Rafferty holds a master’s degree in corporate communications from Boston University and an undergraduate degree from Tulane University. She was an adjunct professor at New York University and has been a guest lecturer at several universities, including City College of New York, Boston University, and Elon College. She has been named to PRWeek’s “Power 50” for the past two years.