Hill+Knowlton appoints Grant Toups as first global Chief Technology Officer
Hill+Knowlton Strategies, a global public relations firm, has appointed Grant Toups as the firm’s first Global Chief Technology Officer.
In this new role, Toups will advance H+K’s end-to-end technology and intelligence strategy, building the firm’s ecosystem of technology-based offerings and improving the use of data science and analytics to drive client success and employee growth and experience. He will report to the Global Chairman and CEO, AnnaMaria DeSalva and join Hill+Knowlton’s Global Leadership Council.
Toups was most recently at ICF Next, where he held a variety of executive leadership roles over his 15-year tenure, leading nearly every part of the business, including Technology, Stakeholder Experience, Customer Loyalty and Strategy and Transformation business units. He also previously served as ICF Next’s Chief Client Officer.
Prior to ICF Next, Toups led PulsePoint Group as its Managing Partner & President. Joining the firm at its founding as the first employee, he subsequently built their Organizational Optimization and Transformation Practice before leading the agency’s overall operations.
DeSalva: “I’m delighted to welcome Grant to the leadership team of Hill+Knowlton. I know Grant to be very dedicated to the advancement of our profession and to the creative development of technology that drives performance. He is a recognized leader in CommTech who has focused extensively on digital transformation and change management, which is an ideal fit for the growth we are experiencing now. With Grant’s leadership and support, we’re eager to innovate new solutions in ways that amplify our capabilities and WPP’s investments in technology.”
Toups is a 2021 PR Week Dashboard 25 honoree, recognizing the “most influential people in communications technology.” He helped design the Page Society’s influential CommTech Learning Curriculum and is a regular guest lecturer on the topic of the confluence of technology and communications.
Toups: “I am thrilled to be joining Hill+Knowlton at such an important inflection point in the firm’s journey. H+K has been a leader in strategic communications for nearly a century, and today there is such strong momentum in the business. I’m looking forward to the work we will do to build H+K’s innovative core to create new outcomes for our people and our clients.”
