Fred Cook
Fred Cook is Director of the USC Center for Public Relations at the Annenberg School and Chair Emeritus of Golin. Fred has 40+ years of experience collaborating with world-class brands like Amazon, Nintendo and McDonald’s and is the author of ‘Improvise: Unorthodox Career Advice from n Unliaely CEO.’
In 2015, after speaking on college campuses around the world, Fred accepted a position with the University of Southern California as the Director of the USC Center for Public Relations at the Annenberg School. In this role, Cook actively shapes the future of public relations and those who will lead it - through research, education and thought leadership.
Cook has worked at Golin for over 35 years, starting as an account supervisor in the Los Angeles office, then moving to the Chicago HQ to become Golin’s third CEO. He is currently Chair Emeritus and credits the company’s culture for his long tenure with the firm.
During his time with the agency, Cook has had the privilege to work with a variety of high-profile CEOs, including Herb Kelleher, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs. He has also managed a wide scope of crises for his clients, including airline crashes, product recalls and sexual harassment. He is also partially responsible for unleashing several cultural phenomena, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pokémon, and the seedless watermelon. Under his leadership, Golin was named agency of the Year more times than he can remember.
Fred is proud of Golin’s accomplishments, but he is even more excited about the future. The world is experiencing profound changes in polarization, multiculturalism, and technology which are impacting the way people communicate. His mission is to stay ahead of these changes through research, education and experimentation. With this in mind, he created a leadership course, based on his book, which shares the wisdom he gained as a cabin boy on a Norwegian tanker, doorman at a 5-star hotel and chauffeur for drunks. The experiential curriculum inspires students to be more creative and confident by pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone.
Fred is frequently invited to speak at major industry conferences including the AMEC Summit, ICCO Global Summit and PRCA Americas Conference. Recognized throughout the industry for his leadership, Fred has received numerous awards for his contributions to public relations including the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Holmes Report, PR Week and PRSA. In 2021, Fred was inducted into the PRWeek Hall of Fame.