June 7 - Corporate Communication International

Conference on Corporate Communication 2011
and strategy to break through distraction. In today’s world with so much noise, she can help you get your
message heard. More than 15 years of corporate leadership experience - coupled with a Ph.D. in
Communication, her role as lecturer in the Communication Program at the Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania, and her national best-selling book Getting a Squirrel to Focus: Engage and Persuade
Today’s Listeners - establishes her as a leader in the field of communication and provides her clients a
unique blend of time-tested strategies and real-world application. Dr. Scott also serves on the advisory
board of the MA in Corporate Communication at Baruch College/CUNY and volunteers in the program as
a student mentor. A CCI Member, she serves on the Conference on Corporate Communication Program
Committee
Neha Sharma has 15 years of experience in the field of mass communication. She started her career as a
reporter with an Indian national newspaper called Indian Express. She has worked on the business and
education beats. Thereafter, she joined Grey Worldwide (an international PR/CC agency) as Media
Manager. After an interesting career in corporate communication at Grey, she decided to follow her inborn
passion for teaching. She joined Amity Business School, Noida as Assistant Director and trained many
Post Graduate students for a successful media profession. Currently she is pursuing a Ph.D. in corporate
communications from DoMS, IIT Madras, Chennai. Her ultimate objective is to create some serious
awareness and acknowledgment of corporate communication education and training among management
professionals and academicians.
Jo-ann Straat is Head of U.S. Employee Communication and Corporate Philanthropy at Daiichi Sankyo,
Inc. (DSI), the U.S. subsidiary of one of Japan’s leading pharmaceutical companies. She is in charge of
strategic employee communication, corporate branding, and corporate social responsibility for the U.S.
organization. She is a key member of Daiichi Sankyo’s team of worldwide communicators working to
align communication globally and create broader employee engagement through the enhancement of the
company’s corporate culture. Earlier, she founded the company’s Corporate Affairs Department to manage
corporate reputation, internal and external communication, and to establish and raise the profile of the
company as a pharmaceutical innovator here in the U.S. Straat was a driving force behind the
establishment of DSI’s Women’s Forum, an initiative developed to champion an enhanced culture of
inclusion through expanding opportunities for women’s professional success and leadership at DSI. Straat
holds a B.A. in French from Ithaca College and a Masters in Corporate and Organizational Communication
from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her thesis research focused on cross-gender communication in the
corporate workplace. She is a CCI Member, a member of the Board of Advisors of Corporate
Communication International at Baruch College and serves on the Conference on Corporate
Communication Program Committee.
Mary Wallenfang Streche is a senior consultant with Gagen MacDonald, a strategy execution and
employee engagement firm that helps clients move corporate and operating strategies off the shelf and into
the workplace, turning them into reality. From major operational changes, to building a brand, to launching
an entirely new strategy, she has provided counsel to some of the leading global brands. Previously,
Streche led the communications function at the London headquarters of International Alert, the UK’s
leading peace-building charity which operates in more than 20 countries globally. She earned a MA in
International Service from the University of Surrey-Roehampton , U.K., and a BA in Public Relations from
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Richard M. Struck is Director of Economic Development at Orange and Rockland Utilities (O&R), based
in Pearl River, New York, a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. A 24-year veteran of
Economic Development, Struck has been instrumental in attracting or expanding 160 major corporations to
his utility service territory, creating over 19,000 new jobs, filling 1.6 million sq. ft. of space and adding
over $23 million of tax ratables to local school districts and municipalities. He has devised and
implemented several strategies for economic and community improvement, has led several internal and
external Community Development Teams, achieving significant results in the region. He has served on
numerous Boards of Directors of non-profit and professional organizations including the Industrial &
Office Real Estate Brokers Association of Metro New York, the Rockland Business Association, the
Orange County Partnership and the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, among others. Struck served
for 3 years as Board Chairman of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp., a 7-county regional
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