PR Boutiques International™ Announces New Officers and Board

Joy Scott Elected Vice President

CHICAGOPR Boutiques International (PRBI), a global network of 30 boutique public relations firms in 12 countries, announced its 2013-14 slate of officers and board members during its sixth annual meeting in Chicago, June 13 – 15.

“This year’s event was the best attended annual meeting in our six year history, and we were especially thrilled to welcome our new members from China and Brazil to our organization,” noted Dan Leinweber, PRBI President, and President of Leinweber Associates, Boston, Mass.

“We’ve all come away with an optimistic outlook for the future as businesses across the globe recognize the value of the boutique agency in delivering the services and insights they need to succeed today. In addition, we’ve gained practical information on how to improve our agency operations, updates on key new developments in the communication industry, and ideas about the opportunities we have for collaboration between our members.”

The 2013-2014 PRBI officers are:

  • President: Dan Leinweber, President, Leinweber Associates, Sudbury, Mass. (Boston area)
  • Vice President: Joy Scott, President, Scott Public Relations, Canoga Park, Calif. (Los Angeles area)
  • Secretary: Paul Furiga, President, WordWrite Communications LLC, Pittsburgh, Pa.
  • Treasurer: Margot Dimond, Principal, DoubleDimond Public Relations, Houston, TX.
  • Member-at-Large: Lucy Siegel, CEO, Bridge Global Strategies, New York, N.Y.

Other members of the PRBI Board of Directors are:

  • Jeanette Darnauer, Darnauer Group, Aspen, Colo.
  • AnnGallery, High View Communications, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  • Lisa George, Iris PR, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • Judith Huss, Huss-PR-Consult, Munich, Germany
  • Irene Maslowski, Maslowski & Associates Public Relations, Roseland, N.J. (NYC area)
  • Lee Weinstein, Weinstein Public Relations, Portland and The Dalles, Ore.

The annual meeting included presentations by such industry experts as David Kamerer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor from the School of Communication at Loyola University in Chicago, who spoke about the corruption of digital discourse; Gary Myers, president and CEO of Gary Myers & Associates, spoke on improving the operations and profitability of a PR agency; Katie Burke of HubSpot presented the evolution of inbound marketing and its relationship to public relations, and Raschanda Hall along with Elaine Stiles from Business Wire discussed the measurement of PR results. Members also reviewed results from an internal survey and held roundtable discussion on agency management, best practice tips, and developing winning proposals for new business.

PRBI’s seventh annual meeting will be held June 19-21, 2014 in Portland, Oregon.

PRBI members are headquartered in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

About PR Boutiques International:

PR Boutiques International™ (PRBI) is an international network of boutique public relations firms. The principals of member firms are experienced practitioners who have held senior positions in large PR agencies and/or corporations but now put service first and work directly with clients. PRBI member firms excel in meeting a huge range of client needs in a large number of industries, including corporate public relations, consumer PR, health care PR, investor relations, crisis management, business-to-business PR, economic development PR, not-for-profit, academia, government, financial, technology, legal, multicultural and international PR and investor relations. Member practitioners have won the highest levels of professional awards, with qualifications ranging from PhDs to former top journalists. They also represent memberships in the most noteworthy international public relations and business associations. For more information, visit