Consultant
Gagen MacDonald

Matt joined Gagen MacDonald in 2006 after a nearly-30-year career with major global corporations - the past 20 leading the function of communications and marketing for four Fortune 500 companies. His corporate experience spans manufacturing, professional services, airlines, healthcare and environmental organizations. He is widely published and recognized as a global leader in marketing integration, internal, organizational and external communications.

At Gagen MacDonald Matt leads teams to serve clients in a variety of industries, from financial services, pharmaceuticals and automotive to consumer products and manufacturing. His consulting expertise includes a broad range of internal applications including functional operations and structure, change management, leadership communications, employee engagement, channel application and utilization, messaging, and organizational alignment. Until 2006, Gonring was VP Global Marketing and Communications at Rockwell Automation where he was managed the corporation's global marketing, internal, external and Web communications, advertising, issues management and brand development. At Rockwell he nurtured and developed an integrated global team reflecting the company's matrix structure, led the brand repositioning, set up a customer experience center and measurement process, established fact-based internal programming and implemented substantial technology investments resulting in significantly enhanced marketing and communications programming.

Before joining Rockwell, Matt was vice president, Corporate Communications for Baxter International where he led internal and external communications, Web and business unit communications and global brand development. Under his leadership Baxter adopted a master brand model and developed a centralized Web management team. Before Baxter, he spent three years as Managing Partner, Communications and Integrated Marketing, for Arthur Andersen. As the firm's top marketing and communications executive he oversaw development and implementation of a new firm-wide business brand strategy. Additionally, he managed communications surrounding the Andersen/Accenture arbitration. Before his Andersen career he spent ten years at USG Corporation where he was vice president, Corporate Communications, leading communications and marketing at the corporate and business unit levels. Some notable accomplishments at USG: Managing communications during a prepackaged bankruptcy, a leveraged recapitalization and hostile takeover. Gonring also spent eight years in the airline industry holding key headquarters communications assignments with United Airlines and Northwest Airlines. Additionally, he served in state and federal government environmental protection agencies early in his career.

Gonring has been a member of the graduate faculty at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Integrated Marketing Communications program where he taught marketing and internal communications courses. He has written extensively for professional and business periodicals and is a frequent speaker in top-level communications and marketing forums. He has authored a chapter on news media relations in the Integrated Marketing Communications Handbook, among other business books. A board member of The Arthur W. Page Society and co-chair of The Institute for Public Relations, Matt has served on Boards and as an advisor for 10 different consulting, not-for-profit and professional associations.

Education: American University, Washington D.C, MS Public
Relations, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, BS Communications and Political Science