Roger Bolton, an internationally recognized independent public relations counselor specializing in strategic issues, has been named chair of the advisory board of the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication at Penn State. He will assume his duties June 1.
The announcement was made by Lawrence G. Foster, who has chaired the advisory board for the Page Center, a research center housed in the College of Communications, since its inception in 2004.
“I am extremely pleased that Roger has agreed to chair our board,” said Foster. “Since joining the board in 2006, Roger has made important contributions to the Page Center and its programs. He brings a wealth of experience based on a lifetime of impressive achievements.”
Bolton works closely with Gagen MacDonald, a consulting firm that helps companies turn strategies into results; and with APCO Worldwide, a public affairs and strategic communication firm with 30 offices around the globe. His specialties include reputation, brand and culture change. He is a past president of the Arthur W. Page Society, a professional organization for senior public relations and corporate communications executives. He recently was named one of the world’s “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior.”
For the Page Center, Bolton will lead a group of distinguished professionals who provide counsel to a unit that has awarded more than $370,000 in research grants to 87 scholars of communications ethics since 2004. The center also is a repository of important oral histories by leading public relations and communications practitioners. In addition, the center provides a home for scholarship on and about Arthur W. Page, the founder of the modern practice of corporate public relations.
Bolton’s experience also includes serving as senior vice president of communications at Aetna, a $35 billion provider of health care benefits. Before that, he was IBM’s director of corporate media relations.
Prior to his business career, Bolton served as assistant secretary of the Treasury for public affairs under President George H.W. Bush, assistant U.S. trade representative for public affairs in the Executive Office of the President under President Ronald Reagan and special assistant to President Reagan in the White House, with responsibility for the president’s relations with business and labor.
In addition to the Page Center, Bolton’s board memberships include the Page Society, the Josephson Institute of Ethics, the Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School and the Baruch College MA in Corporate Communication Program. He is a graduate of Ohio State University.
More information about the center can be found at http://thepagecenter.org online.