Specialization(s):
Crisis Management, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations
Lynn’s reputation for creating successful brand-building programs grows from her ability to listen, to strategize and to shoot straight. She works with Padilla Speer Beardsley clients around the country and in a variety of industries, and is the third chief executive officer to lead our 120 employee-owners in Minneapolis and New York since the firm was founded 50 years ago in 1961.
Prior to joining a predecessor firm in 1983, Lynn was marketing communications manager for Burlington Northern. While there, she coordinated a diverse program to expand awareness of company services following railroad deregulation. She also developed Minnesota’s first public relations campaign for foster care home recruitment.
Lynn is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Dakota. In addition, she holds a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas.
An accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), at the national level she has chaired the PRSA Counselors Academy and served on the board of the Council of Public Relations Firms. She also is a member of the Arthur Page Society, an invitation-only organization composed of corporate communications officers at companies with revenues exceeding $2 billion and leaders of public relations firms that are national in scope.
In Padilla’s headquarters community, Lynn chairs the boards of Meet Minneapolis and The Minneapolis Foundation. She is an executive committee member of the board of the Greater Twin Cities United Way and the Minneapolis Downtown Council, a board member of Capital City Partnership and the Minneapolis Club, a member of the working group of the Itasca Project, and a member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable.
In 2002, the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communications presented Lynn with its Alumni Award for Excellence. In 2007, she was given the Not for Profit Director of the Year by the Minnesota Chapter of Women on Boards. In 2010, she accepted the public relations industry’s prestigious Best Agency to Work For award on behalf of Padilla Speer Beardsley. In 2011, she received the Career Achievement Award as part of Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal’s Women in Business project.
