Weber Shandwick ups united minds’ Kate Bullinger to CEO, deepens de&I & change management expertise with executive promotions and key hires 

In the last year, United Minds played a critical role in helping leaders navigate complex workplace and leadership challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The consultancy has rolled out a series of in-demand offerings counselling dozens of Fortune 500 and other companies on the shift to remote work, planning for a hybrid work model, executing workplace/workforce restructuring and change events and rethinking the employee experience for the future of work. Additionally, United Minds’ DE&I specialty has grown significantly as a reckoning on racial injustice in the United States moved companies across sectors to re-evaluate their role in advancing diversity and achieving equity for employees and other stakeholders.

 

As CEO, Bullinger will continue to drive this momentum, expanding United Minds’ key service areas and solutions and growing a global team of experts to tackle new challenges amid massive disruption.

 

“Kate is a brilliant leader who has been ahead of the curve for years on the critical need for an employee-led approach to driving transformation and business impact,” said Susan Howe, chief growth officer, Weber Shandwick. “From helping executives navigate the greatest leadership challenge of their careers to redesigning the compact between employers and employees in real-time, our United Minds team has never been more relevant. I know Kate will lead the consultancy to new heights in the years ahead.”

 

Throughout her career, Bullinger has counselled senior leaders at a variety of leading organisations, including KPMG, Fannie Mae, Johnson & Johnson, The New York Times Company, Nike, Novartis and Unilever, among others. She was a key driver in Weber Shandwick’s decision to establish a dedicated unit for change management. Prior to launching United Minds, Bullinger founded Weber Shandwick’s global Employee Engagement and Change Management practice and developed it into one of the agency’s most in-demand specialties. Previously, she held senior leadership roles at The Atlantic Philanthropies and was a partner at Mercer Delta Consulting. A highly respected thought leader, Bullinger frequently speaks on the subject of culture, employee advocacy and organisational change and is often quoted in business and HR publications, including Quartz, Business Insider and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

 

Expanding United Minds’ Team of DE&I Experts 

 

Following heightened demand for DE&I expertise, United Minds is further deepening and elevating its bench of talent to help companies develop and execute DE&I strategies that drive results. Tai Wingfield, the lead of the DE&I specialty within United Minds, was recently promoted to executive vice president, DE&I. And former Nielsen DE&I expert Courtney Jones has joined the consultancy as senior vice president, DE&I.

 

Wingfield is a trusted advisor to CEOs, CCOs, CDOs and other diversity leaders at Fortune 500 companies and has counselled leading brands and organisations throughout her career, including Unilever, Eli Lilly, Walmart and Manulife. In 2020, she spearheaded the development of Weber Shandwick’s Structural Inequities Task Force, a multi-disciplinary team leveraging expertise across corporate reputation, social impact, data intelligence and beyond, to help clients evaluate their role in combatting systemic racism and advance DE&I in their organisations and industries. This team has helped more than 135 clients design and communicate meaningful actions with transparency and speed. Wingfield joined from diversity think tank Center for Talent Innovation (CTI), where she coauthored the CTI book, “Ambition in Black and White: The Feminist Narrative Revised,” and the CTI study, “Black Women: Ready to Lead.” In 2020, Wingfield was named to PRovoke’s Innovator 25 in the Americas list.

 

“Tai is a powerhouse counsellor, who by convening our best minds from across the network into one task force with a singular, urgent focus, has catalysed our ability to help clients achieve meaningful action from the inside out,” Bullinger said. “I’m eager to see the outsized impact she will continue having on both our business and our culture.”

 

At Nielsen, Jones held a succession of roles spanning public affairs, multicultural growth and strategy, talent marketing and DE&I. Previously, she was an advocate board member at education non-profit Citizen Schools and a board member at Sporty Girls, Inc., which enriches the lives of young women of colour through participation in sports. Jones started her career in broadcast media at Acme Communications. At United Minds, she will work with clients on strategic alignment of their DE&I efforts to create a guiding framework.

 

“Courtney brings a wealth of expertise and perspective to our DE&I practice,” Wingfield said. “She is a true thought leader on multicultural communications and DE&I and will be a valuable asset as we work with more and more companies and leaders to put DE&I at the centre of strategy and communications.”

 

United Minds also recently added organisational and leadership effectiveness expert Dr. Michael Burchell as executive vice president. Burchell holds a doctorate in social justice and diversity education, and will partner with Wingfield, Jones and others across the DE&I specialty to continue to build the agency’s capabilities in this area and beyond.