Rob Lorfink

Rob Lorfink is President and Chief Operating Officer of Ketchum, a leading global public relations firm with more than 100 offices and affiliates worldwide. As President and Chief Operating Officer, Rob oversees Ketchum’s regions and several of the group’s specialty businesses. He also oversees the agency’s operational functions, comprising talent management, finance, and information technology. Rob’s focus at Ketchum is on performance, driven by the integration of the various regions and collaboration with the specialty units for the benefit of clients. Importantly, his role also includes aligning the agency’s operational functions with the overall strategy of the company. A Senior Partner, Rob serves on the agency’s nine-member worldwide Executive Committee. To ensure that Ketchum meets its clients’ needs wherever they do business, Rob has been pivotal in diversifying the agency’s range of services through a combination of mergers, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures and startups. Among the most notable of Ketchum’s mergers was with European market-leader Pleon in 2009 to form one of the largest and most geographically diverse communications consultancies in the world. The firm further advanced its geographic expansion strategy by acquiring management stakes in Ketchum Greater China, Maslov PR in Russia, Sampark PR in India, and TBWA\RAAD in the Middle East and North Africa. In the United States, Rob has led the team focused on diversifying Ketchum’s service proposition. In chronological order, some of the successes of the team include the launches of Emanate and Zócalo Group and the partnerships with MMG, Access Communications and Harrison & Shriftman. Rob has been instrumental to Ketchum’s strong financial performance, driving consistent profitable growth, including a doubling of revenues in the past five years, and record revenue and new business growth in 2011 and 2012. In 2007, Rob was the only operations leader chosen by PRWeek for the magazine’s “40 Under 40” list, which recognizes industry leaders who have excelled in innovating, growing existing business and inspiring colleagues. Rob joined Ketchum in 2003 from Omnicom Group’s Diversified Agency Services (DAS) division, where he held the position of Vice President of Finance and Operations. Prior to joining Omnicom, Rob worked at Weber Shandwick, where he served in roles that included North American CFO, and COO for New York. He is a graduate of St. Peter’s University.