
Where in the world is Elise Mitchell?
Motorcycling through Norway with her orthopedic surgeon husband, Raye? Not at the moment.
Swooping into Helsinki to preside over a global summit of PR leaders from 40 countries? Been there, done that.
Overseeing the rebranded agency Mitchell, a $16.7 million-in-revenue PR powerhouse she created in Fayetteville two decades ago and still nurtures as company chairman and CEO of the wider Dentsu Aegis Public Relations Network?
Always.
But most recently, she and Raye were on a Thanksgiving drive to Annapolis, Maryland, where their son, Jackson, is in his third year at the U.S. Naval Academy, and then to State College, Pennsylvania, where their daughter, Mackenzie, is a second-year law student at Penn State. “We got to spend time with both our kids, but we had to go to them!”
Being a mom, Mitchell said last year in accepting the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas’ Business Leader of the Year award, is the best job she’s had. And she obviously raised no slackers.
But PR has its demands, and she was in downtown Little Rock a couple of weeks ago dropping off an autographed copy of “Leading Through the Turn.” Published in January by McGraw-Hill, the book merges two of Elise Mitchell’s passions — business and biking.
Mitchell kept her hand on the throttle after selling Mitchell Communications to the ad industry giant Dentsu in a 2013 deal worth millions. In the boardroom or atop a Honda CBR300R, Mitchell has always driven for a destination, success, but biking taught her that getting there is half the lesson.
Mitchell vividly expands on that idea, which she calls a “journey mindset,” in her book. Her early November handoff of CEO duties at Mitchell to Wal-Mart veteran Sarah Clark is yet another milestone.
“It is an ideal time for Sarah to step in,” Mitchell said. “The agency is thriving, and we’ve been transforming ourselves for a digitally centric marketplace, launching several new products and having significant new business wins.”
Mitchell, who has internationally known clients like Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods, Procter & Gamble and Marriott, is now a global PR influencer, elected in October to a two-year term as president of the International Communications Consultancy Organization. Public relations is a booming industry worldwide (a $7.4 billion sector for U.S. firms alone), and ICCO is helping its worldwide professionals “innovate, engage and evolve” in “a time of great change and opportunity.”
To that end, she presented the organization, which includes national trade associations representing 55 countries and 2,500 PR firms, with priorities for the future. Those include raising professional and ethical standards, highlighting evolution and trends in the industry and raising its visibility. “We have a lot of things in common worldwide,” Mitchell told Arkansas Business. “Reputations and corporate character are important no matter what country you do business in. This is an industry that I love, and I want to see it prosper everywhere.”