Featuring Golin CEO Matt Neale
Matt Neale joined the TLF Board of Directors in 2017 and is part of the Alumni Committee. He previously worked at Weber Shandwick before joining Golin (previously GolinHarris) in 2005. He was named the sole CEO at Golin in late 2019. Originally from the United Kingdom, Neale currently lives in Manhattan, New York, with his two daughters.
Q: Why did you decide to join TLF’s Board of Directors?

A: I was fortunate when starting out to have the social mobility to get that first foot into the PR industry’s door. A privilege of leadership is being able to use it to try and address the racial inequity that exists within our industry, especially at entry level. I’m incredibly passionate about supporting initiatives to create equal conditions for diverse candidates that help to level the uneven playing field.
Q: How does TLF’s mission relate to your professional values?
 
A: What I have always loved about our industry is that I viewed it as being a meritocracy where talent can rise to the top. It wasn’t until about five years ago that I realized that as a white male, I had advantages at the start and throughout my career that many people, especially minority candidates, often did not. This ‘epiphany’ moment has driven my interest in DE&I work both at my agency and within the broader industry.
Q: Why is it beneficial for students and young professionals to have a mentor?

A: Having someone in your corner, guiding you, cheering you on and believing in you with infectious passion, is an incredible gift.
Q: If you could travel back in time to when you were just starting your career, what advice would you give yourself?
 
A: Work hard and be nice to people.
Q: What is one thing the advertising, marketing, and public relations 
industries gets wrong about diversity, and what do you think should be done to address this problem?

A: We need to focus harder to communicate that diversity of thought makes the work better, and that will be *the* competitive advantage. There isn’t a person of any political persuasion that doesn’t want to be more effective – it’s the great unifier.
Q: How has the advertising, marketing, and public relations
industries evolved since you started your professional career?
 
A: I think it’s been vastly professionalized and the asks that we make of our young talent joining the industry are demanding and ever more complex. I’m glad I snuck in while I did!
Q: Where do you hope to see the advertising, marketing, and public relations industries in 5 years?

A: I hope we will be confident, relevant and ambitious to solve great challenges. I hope that other industries will look to ours to learn how to create systemic change where diversity of thought can flourish.
Q: It’s been a little over a year since you were named Golin’s sole CEO. How have you grown, both professionally and personally, since?


A: Has it only been a year? For some reason it feels like longer! In 2020 I had to try and temper my natural enthusiasm that everything will work itself out. I’m a natural optimist, however the impact of this pandemic, especially in the late spring was unprecedented in my lifetime. It was simply unrealistic to predict what would happen next or to be able to make all the assurances I wanted to.
 
I also solicited more purposefully the expert counsel of our senior leadership team. At heart I’m a conviction kind of person but this crisis underlined the incredible value of problem solving together. Building on this, a vital element of our success was for me to let go and trust individual leaders of the agency to see through a strategy with their own sense of ownership and identity. 
Q: What career goals do you still have? 

A: To firmly establish Golin as the leading progressive public relations firm in the world.
Q: If you weren’t working in PR, what would you be doing instead? 

A: I’d be a producer working on the next James Bond film.