NEW YORK – August 14, 2019 — Page, the premiere global professional association for senior corporate communications executives, announced today that Maril Gagen MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald, has been elected to its Hall of Fame by the Page Board of Trustees. This distinguished honor recognizes those who have had a significant impact on the enterprises they have served or counseled. MacDonald will be formally inducted at the Page Annual Conference on September 16, 2019, in Boston.
“Maril is a powerful leader and strategic communicator who is among the most prolific thinkers and most accomplished professionals in our industry,” said Bill Nielsen, former VP of corporate communications at Johnson & Johnson and chair of the Page Honors Committee. “She has counseled and partnered with many of the world’s top brands with an emphasis on building strong leaders and stronger corporate cultures. She has left many an enterprise far better than she found it, and it is a great honor to recognize her many accomplishments with this award.”
A nationally recognized leader in communication, strategy execution and business transformation, MacDonald’s clients have included such renowned brands as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coca-Cola, DuPont, GE, Johnson & Johnson and United Airlines. Prior to founding Gagen MacDonald, she served as the CCO and Executive Management Committee member for Navistar. That role exemplifies her ability to impact the success of an enterprise. There, she led a complete overhaul of the company’s culture and employee experience, two notions not as common then as they are today. Working closely with the CEO and her C-Suite colleagues, she helped drive a brand and business turnaround, which has been credited as a key factor in Navistar’s resurgence from the brink of bankruptcy to being named in the Wall Street Journal’s top 10 performers list and one of BusinessWeek’s top 50 companies.
“Maril MacDonald is a force of nature. Her incredible career is full of instances in which her tremendous leadership, smart thinking and unrivaled abilities as a communications executive have driven positive change within so many companies and institutions,” said Chair of the Page Board of Trustees Aedhmar Hynes. “It is a privilege to recognize a friend and kindred spirit with this well-deserved honor.”
In her role as chair of the Page Board of Trustees in 2008-09, MacDonald was the driving force behind the creation of the Future Leaders Experience, a two-year learning experience designed to prepare high-potential communications executives from among Page members' teams for one of the most challenging corporate positions – that of the chief communications officer. She is also founder of Let Go & Lead, an online community dedicated to new philosophies and strategies for leadership.
Recent inductees to the Page Hall of Fame include Dave Samson, general manager, Public Affairs, Chevron; Ron Culp, professional director, PRAD Graduate Program, DePaul University; Ray Kotcher, non-executive chairman of Ketchum and professor of the practice at Boston University's College of Communication; and Björn Edlund of Royal Dutch Shell (retired).
For more information or to register for the Page Annual Conference, please see here.