Andy Polansky
Andy Polansky was the chairman and chief executive officer of IPG DXTRA, a collective of 27 of Interpublic Group’s (IPG) specialty marketing firms across a variety of areas, including public relations, sports and entertainment marketing, experiential, brand consulting, digital marketing and healthcare communications. Global brands within the group include Weber Shandwick, Golin, Octagon, Jack Morton, Current Global, DeVries Global, Rogers & Cowan PMK, and FutureBrand.
Polansky also is a retired executive chairman of Weber Shandwick, after serving as its CEO from 2012–2019.
A leader in the public relations and marketing services industries, Polansky has delivered outstanding results for hundreds of companies around the globe. Under his direction as Weber Shandwick CEO, the agency was named to the prestigious Ad Age Agency A-List several times and was named to Ad Age’s Best Places to Work list in 2019. Weber Shandwick was also PR Week’s Global Agency of the Year four years in a row (2015–2018) and PRovoke Media’s (formerly the Holmes Report) Global Agency of the Year in 2014, 2015 and 2017. In addition, PRovoke Media recognized Weber Shandwick as its Agency of the Decade.
Polansky sits on the Board of Directors for The Ad Council, which uses the power of communications to tackle the most pressing issues facing the country. He has served on a number of other boards as well, including for the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) Health Group, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit independent providers of home health, hospice and community-based care.
He has a passion for engaging with students and young professionals as they plan their careers. He has lectured at colleges and universities across the country and currently serves on the University of Florida Public Relations Department Advisory Council and as an adviser to Syracuse University’s Newhouse PR Practitioners Group.
In 2021, the Arthur W. Page Center in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State honored Polansky with a Larry Forster award for Integrity in Public Communication. In 2019, Polansky was inducted into the PR Week Hall of Fame. He was also honored with the John W. Hill Award, which recognizes professional achievement in public relations, from the New York Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. In addition, he received the Alexander Hamilton Award from the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), the organization’s highest award for lifetime achievement.
Polansky received The Holmes Report’s Individual Achievement Award in 2016 and has been a fixture on PR Week’s Power List for many years. He also has been named PR Week’s Global Professional of the Year (Agency) and has received the prestigious Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations’ Milestones in Mentoring Award in recognition of his people-centric leadership.
Polansky started his career as a journalist, working as a municipal reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, Pa., a business and feature writer for the Princeton Packet in Princeton, N.J., and a sportswriter at The Trentonian in Trenton, N.J.
He holds a bachelor of arts degree from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and sits on the TCNJ Foundation Board of Directors.