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Roger Bolton’s career reflects a lasting commitment to leadership and excellence in corporate communications and public relations. In his Hall of Fame acceptance remarks, he shares reflections on his career, the people who shaped his journey, and the role communications can play in business and society.

A video of Roger’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech will be added to this page soon.

Transcript

First, congratulations to Bruce Berger. It’s an honor to share the stage with you this evening. The Plank Center under your leadership has helped to advance countless careers. Betsy would be very proud.

And posthumous congratulations to Inez Kaiser, a true pioneer in our industry. I wish she could have been here to tell us about her journey. It was great to hear her story from you, Rick [Kaiser].

And thanks to Darcy for that kind introduction. Thank you also for your leadership of this organization that we all cherish, as well as for your friendship and support. 

It’s time to take Page to the next level, and I am committed to supporting you and Rochelle on this journey.

Thank you to Sandra and Tracy and the members of the Honors Committee and to our Board of Trustees for this honor.

It is truly a privilege to join the incredible leaders who have been inducted before me – so many close friends – into the Page Hall of Fame.

I would also like to thank all of you here tonight – and also our colleagues who are not able to be here – for the journey we’ve had together over these many years:

  • Seeking the truth,
  • Supporting each other,
  • And doing our best to help our institutions create value that makes the world better.

That includes the Page staff, present and past, whose incredible dedication and determination enables all of us to thrive. Please know that I will never forget our partnership on this journey.

And finally, I want to thank my family for their love and support:

  • Taylor, Tim and John continue to astound me as they make their own marks in our profession, working in communication roles to support organizations that they care about. 
  • Taylor’s husband, Wesley, is an incredible performer and influencer in the organ world.
  • John’s fiancée, Colette, is a caring nurse who improves every life she touches. 
  • Taylor and Wesley were unable to join us here tonight as they are caring for our new infant grandson, Percy. What a joy he is bringing into all of our lives.
  • Lynne, I am grateful to you for our journey together as we built this family and supported each other’s careers.
  • You touched so many lives with your amazing work at the Broadway-quality White Heron Theatre Company, which you founded.

[pause]

In 1927 – 99 years ago – Arthur W. Page accepted the offer from AT&T CEO Walter Gifford to become his VP of PR on one condition: 

That he would be a senior strategic advisor, not just a publicity man.

Since then, those of us in this room and our predecessors have done our best to help the institutions that we serve to:

  • Understand the needs of our stakeholders
  • And create value that makes their lives better.

In the process, we have helped our institutions to thrive, and we have contributed to a world where progress and opportunity abound.

Personally, I am eternally grateful for having had the opportunity to support:

  • Congressman Bud Brown as he worked to pass legislation that got America through the first energy crisis,
  • US Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter as he worked for free and fair world trade,
  • Treasury Secretary Nick Brady as he worked to forgive Third World debt in return for free market economic policies. 
  • Together, those latter two accomplishments helped to lift more than two billion people out of abject poverty.
  • And finally, to support Jack Rowe and Ron Williams as they transformed Aetna into a partner with doctors to give more people access to affordable, quality health care. 

All of you have similar stories and the world is better for it.

Many of you have taken on broader leadership responsibilities because your organizations see you as transformative leaders.

[pause]

BUT: Despite all our accomplishments – and they are many – there are still critically important issues that need our attention. 

Arthur Page set an example by being a strategic voice inside a powerful institution. 

A century later, our responsibility is to use OUR voices to help our institutions to create opportunity and value for everyone in a dangerously divided and rapidly changing world.

Here’s what I hope all of us will remember as we face the incredible challenges of this divided world and the breakneck pace of change: 

Our job is to listen … 

  • To bring in outside perspectives. 
  • To think clearly about how we can and must change to meet emerging needs.
  •  And to focus on creating value for all our stakeholders.

We have the opportunity and the responsibility to build a better world for EVERY PERSON on this planet.

Yes, EVERYONE. 

As much as I love my country, its purpose must be broader than America First. Together, we must have compassion for and fight for opportunity for all humans on this planet. 

We serve many of the world’s most influential institutions, which have the power to stand up for what’s right. But will they?

Sandra Macleod showed me this quote from James Baldwin that she found on the wall yesterday at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights here in Atlanta:

  • "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

We must have the courage to convince our institutions to face the biggest challenges confronting our world today. 

[pause]

What are the biggest issues challenging us today? There are many, but here are a few that I am most concerned about right now.

You may not agree with me on all points, and that’s fine. I would love to hear your perspectives. But here are mine:

First, artificial intelligence.

  • We must advocate for its ethical use by our organizations AND for responsible global regulation. The need for guardrails can no longer be ignored.
  • We can use AI to discover new solutions and to make us more effective, but we must strive to see that when AI displaces jobs, those affected are able to work on the new ventures that AI will open up for us.
  • We must use AI to inform, NOT MANIPULATE, in two-way engagement that helps us to listen better. 
  • Today, we are highly focused on catching people’s attention as they speed from one digital moment to the next in fractions of a second. 
  • All good. Getting attention to our good ideas and offerings is important.
  • But it’s easy to forget listening when we are caught up in all of that. Our obligation is to build relationships. NOT transactions.

Issue two: Affordability.

  • There is a big focus today on the cost of goods and services, for good reason, but we’ve lost sight of the other half of the equation: the importance of a living wage.
  • New research shows that more than one-third of the employees at the 1,000 largest American companies don't earn a family-sustaining living wage. 36%, to be exact.
  • ALL of our organizations should enable people who work full time to be able to meet their families’ basic needs.
  • I know that’s not easy in a competitive marketplace, especially if you have a large number of frontline workers. 
  • But it’s an important moral and ethical issue. If those of us at the top are thriving while people who work for us can’t meet their families’ basic needs, we shouldn’t be surprised when people lose trust in business.
  • The good news is, they still generally trust their own employer, and there’s good evidence that companies that commit to a living wage strengthen their reputation with their employees and with the outside world.

Third, demonized acronyms:

  • The backlash against DEI and ESG has made doing the right thing more challenging.
  • We know that our organizations are more effective when they are diverse, and responsible businesses support equal opportunity for all humans to fulfill their God-given destiny.
  • Responsible businesses also take care to preserve natural resources and fight against slavery and oppression in supply chains.
  • As Michael Maslansky has shown us, we can use better language to describe our commitment to these principles – which most people support – without resorting to easily vilified acronyms. 

Finally, issue four: defending liberal democracy:

  • I’m very proud that the nation of my birth pioneered a functioning democracy that has built alliances with like-minded nations to advance freedom and economic opportunity for people all over the world.
  • But the factions our founders warned against increasingly expect our elected representatives to follow orders from the parties, rather than listening to the voters or to each other.
  • We no longer have a two-party system, but rather two one-party systems, as David French recently noted.
  • The U.S. Congress is not functioning as it was designed to do in the Constitution:
  • It’s building up massive debt and failing to address our biggest challenges.
    • Cutting taxes while increasing spending gets votes. 
    • But it also threatens our financial future.
  • Representative government depends upon listening, trust, and respect. 
  • Compromise is not a dirty word. It’s an essential way to value everyone and work diligently to make the best of every situation.
  • This may not be an issue where you see your company taking a public stand, but I believe all of us must do what we can to stand up for the rule of law and to support reforms that make everyone’s vote matter once again.
  • We must reform our election rules so everyone’s vote counts.
  • And we must use our votes to elect representatives who will listen to each other and work to find solutions to make the world better. 

Of course, there are many more issues, but I’ll stop there with this final thought: 

All human beings are created equal, and we must end the tribalization and demonization that divides us.

Yes, there are dangers and we face significant challenges. But I am not afraid. 

I am an optimist. Not because I don’t see the existential risks posed by selfish nationalism, a breakdown of the post-war international order and the rise of super-human technology. Those are very real dangers.

I am an optimist because I believe in the power of the institutions we serve to stand up for what’s right.

AND, I am optimistic because I know that the people in this room can see the dangers and have the guts to encourage their institutions to do the right thing.

We don’t just have a seat at the table. We are leading the charge. 

We are helping our organizations to recommit to or redefine their corporate characters in a time of rapid transformation.

We are speaking up, speaking out, and influencing outcomes.

Above all, we listen to all sides with open minds. When we disagree, we listen even harder. 

We argue our case, but we are also willing to be persuaded – to learn and to change and to get better.

We seek to find common ground. And we seek to elevate the least among us to positions of opportunity and success.

I have been blessed to be among you as, together, we have sought to elevate our profession on behalf of a world that needs us. 

I’m not done yet. And neither are you.

Thank you.