Chris Deri

Chris Deri

Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and President, C-Suite Advisory, Weber Shandwick; Center for Public Relations Board Member

At Weber Shandwick, as chief corporate affairs officer and president of its C-suite advisory business, Deri leads its global corporate affairs group comprised of hundreds of professionals across corporate positioning, financial communications, and crisis and issues management, as well as overseeing its growing business of advising various C-suite leaders and functions at the intersection of organizational strategy, societal engagement, and public positioning. 

Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, at Teneo, the global CEO advisory firm, Deri advised Fortune 500 CEOs on formulating and implementing their agendas related to corporate reputation, organizational transformation, and financial performance. He also worked with colleagues to establish Teneo’s digital practice, advising clients on content and engagement strategies, digitizing their organizations, and using data and analytics to produce insights specifically designed for the C-suite.

Previously, he was president of WCG, a full-service communication, digital marketing, and analytics firm with 180 employees in seven U.S. and European offices. Prior to that, Deri was Burson-Marsteller’s market leader in China, overseeing the agency’s operations across its five offices in mainland China. At Burson, he launched the Burson-Marsteller Leadership Institute, a first-of-its-kind communications leadership training offering in China. He also spent a decade at Edelman, where he co-incubated and led the global corporate responsibility and sustainability practice which grew to 110 practitioners in 15 offices around the world.

Earlier in his career, Deri led fundraising in the Northeast for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee; before that, he was the director of institutional affairs for the National Minority AIDS Council, an advocacy and training organization representing thousands of local community-based AIDS service providers.