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We’re spotlighting our Edelman Culture Champions, individuals recognized by their peers for exceptional dedication, positivity, and contributions to fostering a supportive workplace environment. These champions play a pivotal role in cultivating a culture where every voice is heard and valued. This edition of Inside Edelman features profiles of these outstanding colleagues from our U.S. offices, showcasing their efforts to uphold Edelman’s values of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB).

Tell us about your Edelman journey.

Growing up in a small town outside of Houston, Texas, I had high hopes to work at a reputable PR firm in the fast-paced, never-sleeping, icon that is New York City. I would have never believed I’d actually be going on 4 years at the most reputable firm of them all – Edelman. In my time here I have been able to work on incredible campaigns alongside some of the most brilliant people in our industry. Together our teams have brought a wealth of knowledge and insight to our clients and truly put culture first.

You were nominated for Culture Champion by your colleagues – how do you foster a collaborative and respectful culture within your team?

Honestly – I write down little memos to myself. I try to keep track of all the small things, people’s kid's names, their allergies (that’s an important one!), their coffee order, and even their astrological sign. Those little things help me better understand who I’m working with and allow me to show up for them in ways that matter. I really try to ensure everyone on the team feels seen and is not treated necessarily the same, but in the way they want to be treated.

How does your personal background play a role in your professional life?

I do feel my Latinidad and Queerness show up in my work, especially being on the Multicultural Brand team and leading Equal’s NY Branch. How I process briefs, lead workstreams, and guide clients are all through lens of my identities and in the spirit of being culture forward. In fact, my first ever real agency gig was for a Multicultural PR & Creative firm (my first boss poached me when I was waiting tables!) and that’s where I developed the strong connections and strategy I leverage every day at Edelman.

When you think about the future of Edelman, what does it look like for you?

I think it’s a bright future, and a future where everyone is adaptable to change. It’s always been true of our industry that you must be agile, but now more than ever agility is table stakes. I’m hopeful, we can bridge the gap between the new age mentality and retain some tried and true PR practices for stellar results.

What recommendations would you give to colleagues who are trying to make more connections at work? How do you think these connections have benefited your work?

Studies show work quality and team member satisfaction increases when people feel they have a “work bestie.” I encourage everyone to seek out connection because at the end of the day Public Relations is so much more than media relations, it’s relations with clients, vendors, and colleagues. Strong relationships with all these parties are what make us successful. So get involved, reach out! Maybe it’s ENGs, post-work happy hours where we celebrate and commiserate, 1:1s with no agenda what-so-ever. I know these moments have made all the difference in my time here at Edelman.

Ty Meza is a Senior Account Supervisor on the Multi-Cultural team based in New York.

I attended the graduation of my stepson, Joshua Gisiger, last weekend at Rice University in Houston. He had two ceremonies, the awarding of the degree at Rice Stadium and the convocation of the engineering graduates on the prior day at the field house. The engineering students proceeded one by one to the stage to put their hands through a large metal circle on a table, then were awarded a ring that they are to wear henceforth as a sign of their fealty to the profession.

These words were read by the dean of engineering at Rice, as they are at other schools, and as they have been read since 1950. “As an engineer, I pledge to practice integrity and fair dealing, tolerance and respect, and to uphold devotion to the standards and dignity of my profession, conscious always that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve humanity by making the best use of the Earth’s precious wealth.”

The graduates in computer science took a similar vow, as they promised the following. “I am a computing professional. My work affects people’s lives, both now and into the future. As a result, I bear moral and ethical responsibilities to society. I pledge to practice my profession with the highest level of integrity and competence. I shall always use my skills for the public good. I shall be honest about my limitations, continuously seeking to improve my skills through lifelong learning. I shall engage only in honorable and upstanding endeavors. By my actions I pledge to honor my chosen profession.”

It is in this context that I recommend to all my readers The Thinking Game, a 2024 documentary on the life of Demis Hassabis, founder of DeepMind, now Google DeepMind. Hassabis is a child genius, designing a top ten video game at age 16, then founding the first artificial general intelligence company, DeepMind, on graduation from Cambridge University. His first goal was to develop a program that could beat the best in games ranging from PONG to GO. Within four years, DeepMind bested the Korean and Chinese GO champions. Then it was on to the real-life challenge of solving the “grand challenge of biology, the protein folding problem.” The AlphaFold AI system can predict the 3D structure of proteins, thereby speeding the development of drugs. Hassabis and his colleague John Jumper were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024 for this work. It should also be noted that Hassabis made a fortune selling to Google in 2017. I reference Hassabis because his work reflects the very ideals those engineering pledges are meant to uphold: innovation in service of humanity, guided by responsibility and ethics.

The vows taken by those graduates stayed with me as I read a recent New York Times article, “How a Secretive Firm Tried (and Failed) to Fix an Epstein Friend’s Tattered Image.” The piece examined the work of Terakeet, a reputation management firm, that worked to burnish the tarnished image of Kathryn Ruemmler, until recently the general counsel of Goldman Sachs. The Times article goes on to say that the firm “resorted to the furtive, algorithm-placating digital tradecraft that made it one of the most exclusive firms in the booming world of reputation management.” Mac Cummings, the owner of Terakeet issued this rebuttal. “Terakeet’s technology is built on a simple mandate: organizations must tell their own story. If they do not, third-party bias combined with generative AI will shape it for them.”

That explanation, however, speaks to a broader tension within the communications profession about the responsibilities that come with shaping public perception. The Arthur Page principles remain the proper guidelines for behavior in public relations: tell the truth, prove it with action, and conduct PR as if the whole enterprise depends on it. In a world where information reaches people directly as well as through media, and where the lines between fact and fiction are increasingly blurred, we have a responsibility to help people better understand the truth, not make it harder to find. Otherwise, the media will doubt our veracity, the public will rightly question our motives, and employees will feel betrayed when money is substituted for judgment.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

Matthew Harrington, our Executive Vice Chairman, received the SABRE Individual Achievement Award for distinguished service in public relations at PRovoke Media’s North American SABRE Awards this evening. I want to add my own thoughts about a man who has been such a singular force in the success of Edelman over the past four decades.

His first day at the firm is the stuff of legend. I met Matt through his cousin Becky, who was the girlfriend of my pal Dave Wagener in college. Matt came to our New York office at 1775 Broadway. I quickly concluded that he was bright and energetic, hiring him on the spot. We were short of staff, so I sent him out right away to help our client Scitex on its first quarterly earnings release since listing on Nasdaq. I had not thought to ask Matt whether he had done one of these before. Our client, Arthur Low, gamely guided Matt through the process and the release went out on time.

As one of our rising young executives, Matt put his hand up to move to the West Coast in the early 90s to lead our growing Visa International relationship out of the San Francisco office. He was then named General Manager when the incumbent moved to the client and ultimately became Head of West Coast Operations. Among the clients he attracted to Edelman during his tenure on the left coast were Starbucks and Charles Schwab, which are still pillars of DJE’s business. He was the first dedicated client leader to Microsoft and among the first Edelman executives to work with Samsung Electronics; his relationship with both companies continues today.

Through his work as both a client and CEO counselor, he has helped elevate and redefine the role of today’s communications professional. He has led our clients and our firm through defining moments post 9/11: Leading the Cantor Fitzgerald grieving center at the Pierre Hotel, the 2008 financial crisis and the recovery from COVID. One of his most groundbreaking engagements was with Odwalla, where he helped pioneer the use of the internet for crisis management, providing real-time updates to consumers on product safety and earning a PRSA Silver Anvil for best Communications Campaign of 1997.

Matt has been a leader on the ethical practice of public relations. He helped establish our firm’s core set of values and has been outspoken in his role as board member at USC Annenberg School’s Center for Public Relations to ensure that graduates take these values into the workplace. He has worked closely with our Crisis and Issues team to fight disinformation.

As our Chief Operating Officer for the past fifteen years, he has been my true partner in growing the business to its nearly $1 billion level. He has carried the flag for the Edelman brand to our far-flung markets, presenting the Edelman Trust Barometer, doing new business development, and meeting with opinion leaders in Davos. He is the calm, cool operator who has translated nascent ideas such as the Circle of Cross Influence into revenue and top client service.

It is important to note that he has balanced work and family life. He is an incredible husband, father and now grandfather. He has been a role model to so many in the company, mentoring Judy Mackey, Justin Blake, Lisa Sepulveda, Russell Dubner and my three daughters. I have also been the direct beneficiary of Matt’s wisdom; he is a trusted counselor whose judgment and perspective have guided me through many of the firm’s most important moments.

He has also done impressive community service on the board of his alma mater, Denison University, and Classic Stage Theatre (you need to know that Matt gave up a promising acting career to go into PR).

Matt is the epitome of the Edel-person, smart, devoted to clients, global-minded and committed to excellence. I congratulate Matt on his well-deserved award and count on him for many more years of partnership.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

I had a coffee with Suzanne McCormick, President and CEO of YMCA of the USA yesterday morning in New York City. Founded in 1844 in the UK, with its first branch organized in the U.S. in 1851, the Y has taken on the important mission of creating connected communities. Fighting social isolation and insularity is a major objective for Edelman, given the alarming finding from our 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer: 70 percent of respondents across 28 countries were found to have an insular mindset, which means they are unwilling or hesitant to trust someone with different values, approaches to social issues, backgrounds, or information sources.

McCormick is in her fourth year as CEO. She wants to work much more with the private sector. She has forged partnerships with the National Basketball Association (bet that you did not know that Dr. Naismith created the game of basketball at a YMCA in Springfield, MA) and the National Football League. Among the companies already involved with the Y are American Express, Amazon and Walmart.

The Y has a massive footprint across the U.S., serving 18.8 million people annually, 6.8 million of whom are youth. The Y reaches 10,000 communities and has 2,600 locations. Much of the work happens in schools, with Y personnel running after-school programs. The Y is also the largest nonprofit childcare provider in the U.S. Ys collectively represent $9B in annual revenue and employ nearly 300,000 people. For many of the employees, the Y is their first job, from lifeguard to camp counselor. Each Y is independent but acts as a franchisee, with common operating standards and systems.

She believes that the Y can become the premier third space in the country. “Think of the story of our founder, George Williams, who came to London from the countryside to work in a factory during the Industrial Revolution in the 1840s. Young men had no social circle beyond bars and brothels. So, he began a Bible study class to enable wholesome connections with other young men from rural areas. This began our journey to help people find their purpose and connection in local communities.”

She has big plans for the 175th anniversary, including a once every four years gathering of Y staff and volunteers in New Orleans in September. She also wants to flag Y-Cons (a take-off on Icons), celebrities and athletes who got their start at the Y. I am no celebrity but have wonderful memories of the West Side Y preschool for my three daughters, basketball at the Lincolnwood Y and killer workouts at the Lawson Y with lunatic trainer Dick Voit and Voit’s Warriors (best line…who taught you that push-up style, lover boy).

The Y is open to a new relationship with companies interested in sponsoring national or regional programs. I can see food clients doing work in healthy eating, pharmaceutical clients helping consumers to change lifestyle through exercise and vital sign monitoring or financial services clients helping on financial literacy or tech clients using the Y for reskilling. I am meeting with McCormick at the end of May in Chicago to advance this discussion and encourage all my colleagues in PR to do the same.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

Our assumptions about who believes what about health are spectacularly wrong. Doubts about nutrition, vaccination, and public safety recommendations are no longer a fringe view. They stem neither from a single ideology nor lack of education and do not result from distrust of doctors or experts. In fact, our latest 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and Health, based on a survey of 16,000 respondents across 16 countries, finds that a staggering 70% believe at least one of six divisive health claims about foods, vaccines and medicines to be true. Understanding the worldview and concerns of the public is everything. CEOs and communicators in health must wake up to this radical new reality.

Divisive health beliefs span the globe, highest in the developing nations of India (89%) and South Africa (88%), lowest in Japan, Canada, and the U.S. (50-61%). The divisive health beliefs apply equally across educational levels (university degreed versus non-university degreed) and are more acute among young people (79% for ages 18-34 ) and right-leaning voters (78%), though majorities hold for ages 55 and older (60%) and the left-leaning (64%). It is shocking that only a slight majority (52%) believes the risks of childhood vaccination outweigh the benefits to be false, while slightly over one third (36%) of respondents say adding fluoride in drinking water is harmful is false, a public health staple in the many Anglophone countries since the 1960s.

The one-year drop in confidence (-10 points to 51%) to make informed health decisions for ourselves and our families is staggering. From China to the UAE to Mexico, the majority of people feel their country is divided on key health issues, potentially leading to a profound loss of trust in the healthcare system. Artificial intelligence has already displaced medical expertise in the eyes of many; doctors are competing to influence health decisions with AI, peers, friends and other non-credentialed sources.

More information alone is not the way out of this. Those with more divisive health beliefs are in fact more immersed in information, with on average two thirds saying that they frequently consume health news or consult AI platforms for answers, double or triple the engagement of those who believe no divisive claims. They are nearly three times as likely to read health news from different political orientations. We see evidence of confusion: They are also more likely to be getting mixed advice from credentialed and uncredentialed voices, and so it follows that they’re three times more likely to disregard HCP medical guidance in favor of advice from friends, family, or social media in the past year than those who disbelieve divisive health claims. This is not a story of too little; it’s a matter of too much information without proper context.

Science needs a reset to adapt to this unstable world of trust, offering a new deal to patients and health providers. To date institutional science has solely focused on the WHAT, expressed by top-down communication from credentialed authority figures. That is no longer sufficient for those with skepticism about global institutions, experts, and government borne of the COVID-19 ordeal. The HOW must be explained in simple terms, using data visualizations and with greater transparency on clinical trial processes. The WHY requires acknowledgement of benefits versus side effects and the relative value of the innovation versus cost.

Here is a five-point communications strategy for Health:

Institutions and providers alike need to show up as guides, not advocates.
Trust must be brokered across groups with different views, elevating shared goals without needing to achieve unanimity.
Acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers. Luckily, this is already a built-in part of the scientific method to correct as we learn.
Frequency, frequency, frequency. People need to hear and be heard multiple times before they consider a recommendation on health.
Surround sound. We should utilize a broader circle of trust, valuing friends and family and patient advocacy groups alongside medical experts.

It is time for science to go on offense, to recognize the futility of facts alone, and bring the public along as partner in a better life.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

This post originally appeared on Fortune.com

I have just visited the Anne Frank House installation at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago, which will open to the public on May 1. This is the first time that the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam has allowed its precious artifacts to come to the U.S. The installation is a precise copy of the Annex built behind the original Frank family apartment in Amsterdam. I sit on the board of the museum and have been very involved in this project.

When I asked Dr. Chevy Humphrey, President & CEO of the museum, why she wanted to host this exhibit, she told me, “Julius Rosenwald, who made Sears, Roebuck and Company a dominant retailer in the U.S., was the original funder of the museum. He was Jewish, proud of his religion and determined to use his financial success to improve society. He funded the building of schools throughout the South from 1913-32 to educate African American children in towns where local school boards did more to support white students. This exhibit carries on his work, providing students with context about the Holocaust, explained by a young girl their own age.”

The Diary of Anne Frank is a collection of writings by a teenager who lived in isolation with her family for two years in Amsterdam, hiding from the Nazi SS. Thirty million copies of the book in seventy languages have been sold since it was published first in the U.S. in 1952. The Diary also became a play on Broadway, then a movie in 1958.

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt in 1929 to Otto and Edith Frank. Otto Frank was a successful businessman, running a food business. With the rise of Hitler, the Franks moved to Amsterdam, living above a food processing factory. As the Nazi onslaught proceeded across Europe, he constructed an annex behind their original apartment. In 1942, the deportation of Jews from Holland began. The Franks moved into their annex, fed and clothed by loyal company employees.

This deception worked until August,1944, when two workers in the factory were forced by the SS to give up the Franks. The entire family was sent to Auschwitz. The two daughters, Margot and Anne, were later transferred to Bergen Belsen, another death camp, where they died in February 1945. Their mother died in January 1945 in Auschwitz. Otto Frank lived through the ordeal and was freed by Russian troops in late January 1945, then took six months to find his way back to Amsterdam through Odessa and Marseille, only to find himself the sole survivor.

On his return to his factory in Amsterdam, he met his secretaries, who presented him with four volumes of Anne’s diaries. Her first diary was a 13th birthday present from her parents. Her first entry was, “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.” There is an incredibly moving video of one of the secretaries, showing how she delivered the diaries into Otto Frank’s hands.

There are three objects from the house that I found deeply moving. First there was a bicycle hung on the wall alongside a backpack. It was useless for the hideaways except as a source of continuing hope for a better future. Second was a makeshift menorah, carved of wood, its candles the symbol of resistance. Third was the cut-out photos of movie stars on the wall above the beds of the two girls; the first awakening of teens to a life on the outside that they could only dream about.

Dr. Humphrey is a singular leader who understands the power of her office to influence and educate the community. She understands that the primary mission of her institution is to improve the understanding of science, enabling visitors to dream about careers in technology. But she told me, “You need an appreciation of humanities to fully appreciate science. The racial pseudo-scientific theories of the Nazis, a master race that sits above Jews and people of color or those with deep religious faith, need to be understood and rejected today. That is the message of the Anne Frank exhibit, painful truth through history.” To all my readers, please come to Chicago in the next nine months to see this all-important exhibition at the Griffin MSI.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

I had lunch last Friday with Daisy Veerasingham, President and CEO of The Associated Press. She is the first non-American to hold the role of this all-important news organization, operating in 100 countries and in all 50 states in the U.S.

The changes in the business model are profound. AP has historically been funded primarily by U.S. newspapers, which now account for only 10 percent of revenue. Key customers include TV stations, digital platforms such as Google, Yahoo and OpenAI, and foreign media. Forty percent of revenue originates outside of the U.S. from broadcasters such as BBC, Al Jazeera, and Channel 18 in India. Now AP is working with influencers on some specific stories and projects.

The AP’s content is now 80 percent visual. The global news organization produced 1.34 million photos, 85,000 news and sports videos and 40,000 hours of live video in 2025. Contrast that to the 344,000 text stories produced by AP reporters. Over four billion people see AP journalism every day.

Veerasingham told me that “AP is a source of truth at scale. We have a foundational level of facts. We want to be the first out with the news, but it must be verified and correct. We must provide a nonpartisan view. We are doing first-hand journalism.”

AP is using AI in the story production process, translating articles into multiple languages, transcribing press conferences. “The story must start and end with a human being,” she noted.

The key editor for PR people is Cara Rubinsky, global business editor, based in London.

AP is going direct to consumers through APNews.com. It is a free service that depends on reader donations and advertising. The site attracted 54 million monthly users and 2.6-billion-page views last year. Veerasingham is coming to the Cannes Festival of Creativity in June to meet with advertisers.

We need to root for the success of AP, a truly independent global news organization devoted to truth and facts in a time of disinformation.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

Tonight is the happiest night in the Jewish year, celebrating our journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom on the way to Israel. It has been the model for so many other peoples as they have sought their own path to liberty from the oppressor.

It has been a deeply disturbing year for Jews. There is a massive surge in anti-Semitism from both the Left and the Right. There have been violent incidents around the globe, most recently the attack on a synagogue in suburban Detroit which forced an emergency evacuation of school children, the torching of Jewish voluntary ambulances in London and an explosion at the Liège Synagogue in Belgium. Rather than dwell on the negative, I thought that readers would enjoy the story of a Jewish woman who endured tragedy and came out the other side to lead a life of importance.

Anne Skorecki Levy is the grandmother of my son-in-law, Marcel Garon. Known as Mamaw, Anne was born in Łódź, Poland three years before the outbreak of World War II. Her father, mother, sister, and she are the only family unit to survive intact through the ordeal of the Warsaw Ghetto. Alongside her younger sister, Lila (who recently passed away last year), she hid inside pieces of furniture inside the Ghetto that her father, a masterful carpenter created. Emerging from the shattered Europe in 1945, the family moved to New Orleans in 1947, where she ultimately married Stanley Levy.

She rose to public consciousness through her confrontation in 1989 with David Duke, grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and a recently elected state legislator, who was running for Governor of Louisiana. Levy had come to Baton Rouge at the invitation of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which was opening an exhibition at the state Capitol. Duke was strolling through the exhibit, hands clasped behind his back. This struck Levy as reminiscent of the pose of Nazi officers. She went up and tapped Duke on the back, asking, “What are you doing here? Why are you looking at these posters? I thought you said it never happened.” Duke replied, “I never said it didn’t happen, just that it was exaggerated.”

The confrontation was seen by Capitol reporters, who then followed up with Duke. “I know there were terrible atrocities against the Jewish people, but it is fair to question certain aspects of the Holocaust,” said Duke. Levy decided to follow Duke around the state as he ran for Governor, confronting him about the Holocaust. She said, “I never wanted to be in the papers, and I never wanted to find myself a nuisance. But my children look at me differently because I did speak up.” Levy went on to be a driving force in educating public school students across Louisiana and the deep South about the Holocaust and became very involved in New Orleans' world renowned World War II Museum and was the linchpin of a warm and loving family.

As the holiday approaches, I am considering my own role in preserving freedom for Jews in the U.S., which has been a blessing for immigrant families such as my own, fleeing the horrors in Europe. My commitment is to build alliances with ethnic or religious groups that have similar values of family, hard work, community, and charity. My wife Claudia and I have organized dinners for Latinos and Jews in Chicago, Houston, Long Island and New York City so that leaders in both communities can stand up for each other in challenging moments. This year, we need to find new friends, educate and cultivate them, turn them into powerful advocates for the truth about Jews in America and the world.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

^{*I’ve included photos of Anne Frank, who was a teenager in Amsterdam at the outbreak of WWII. She and her family hid for two years before being betrayed to the Nazis. The first U.S. exhibit of items from the Anne Frank House opens May 1 at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.}

I have spent the last week in Mumbai, Delhi, and Agra, meeting with business leaders, government officials, journalists, and academics while soaking in the culture. It is a time of acute self-reflection, about geopolitics, Brand India, and solving energy shortages prompted by the conflict in Iran. Here are a few observations about the market:

Friend to All: Indian tankers are some of the few allowed to move through the Straits of Hormuz, carrying essential oil and liquified natural gas (LNG) from the Middle East. India is also receiving energy from Russia. The relationship with the U.S. is strained by tariffs but remains essential. The EU has just concluded a 10-year negotiation that will allow food and wine to be sold in India, in return for access to India’s auto and textiles. India does not want to choose sides, preferring strategic autonomy in diplomatic relations. The Iran conflict is posing severe challenges, with the Government having to manage gas supply to households, restaurants and industries. The Government is considering new energy supply possibilities including South America and West Africa.
India Inc: The Government seems to be replicating the model of South Korea, with large Indian companies leading the charge as industrial champions, including Tata, Mahindra, Reliance, and Adani delivering scale and efficiency. The Hindustan Unilever model of 40 percent local ownership of the company is a powerful asset in an increasingly nationalistic marketplace. Small business accounts for only one-third of GDP; entrepreneurs are a major growth opportunity for the country but startups could do with more access to credit and less paperwork. Executives agree that India can grow 8-10 percent per annum in the next decade.
Deregulation: Since 1991, India has steadily moved from a controlled economy toward a modern, market-oriented economy driven by the private sector. The insurance market has been privatized for 25 years but the top two companies are state-owned. Delivery of services is steadily eliminating the middleman; Reliance and Allianz are launching an online direct to consumer insurance business which will mimic the low-cost Reliance cell phone service, with the goal of advancing the national target of delivering insurance for all by the 100th anniversary of India’s independence in 2047.
Manufacturing Ambition: There have been important success stories such as automotive (Chennai as the new Detroit), steel (second largest producer in the world) and the production of a quarter of all iPhones globally. But the manufacturing sector will need to grow by 15 percent year on year to achieve the goal of 25 percent of total GDP in the next two decades. Target industries include pharmaceuticals, electronics, and food products. Labor costs remain low but capital costs are high, with limited Foreign Direct Investment and high cost of logistics given excessive inventory used as a hedge against delivery risk. The Government has concluded nine free trade deals with 38 nations in the past five years, mostly with countries having capital surplus, aiming to attract inward investment to India.
Companies Are Focused on Domestic Market, Not Abroad: This was the most surprising finding of the week. The growth opportunities, whether in entertainment, retailing, healthcare or technology, are greatest at home. Companies are targeting a market of over 400 million Gen Z consumers and a population with a median age of 29, roughly a decade younger than in the U.S. or China. Hindustan Unilever has created a largely local supply chain (97 percent of raw materials are sourced in India) by helping to build cold storage and financing farmers.
Correcting Bias in AI-Driven Narratives: I also believe we need to confront a critical challenge in the age of AI-driven search. LLMs are often shaped by a predominantly Western media lens, which means the narratives that surface in GEO results can carry inherent bias, especially when it comes to foreign companies and markets like India. While this is not a surprise, it does present an opportunity -- Asian champions have a powerful role to play in shaping a more balanced and representative global narrative. By strengthening earned coverage and ensuring diverse, credible voices are reflected in the information ecosystem, organizations across the region can help correct this imbalance and build trust at scale.
Changed Media Marketplace: India has the largest YouTube audience in the world, with approximately 500 million active users as of late 2025. Brands are spending ten times as much on digital media as on television (sole exception being sports, especially Cricket Championships which are must-see TV). One marketer said, “Ten years ago it was all about branding; now it is performance, with spend concentrated on social media platforms like Instagram and Google, and e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon.” Industrial giants Reliance and Adani have substantial broadcast media holdings. This is enabling the rise of local brands, often connected to local influencers. One example is OZiva, a local supplement brand that exploded in popularity after a podcaster promoted the product on a recent segment. E-Commerce is about 7 percent of total commerce in India, projected to expand to 14 percent by 2030, with quick commerce accounting for about 10 percent of that by gross merchandise value (GMV).
The Creator Shift: In India, I see the creator economy entering a far more mature phase, with audiences moving toward raw, relatable storytelling and deeply engaged communities over mass reach. In a market shaped by vernacular growth and peer-led influence, creators are no longer just amplifiers but cultural influencers. This means co-creating with creators -- bringing them in early, investing in long-term partnerships, and building ecosystems where content, community, and real-world engagement intersect. In India especially, where trust is often built through word-of-mouth and social validation, brands must move beyond transactional engagement and build sustained, purpose-driven relationships that turn storytelling into a trust-building engine.
Remarkable Progress in Infrastructure: I could not believe the change along the waterfront in Mumbai, with the coastal road now enabling the traveler to zip between meetings at Taj Lands’ End to the bottom tip of the city in 20 minutes. Subways have opened in major cities; underground metro is expanding in Mumbai. Commuting to work will get easier soon. With new roads have come beautiful apartment towers and expansive office complexes.
Spirituality: My most profound moment was a visit to the Elephanta Caves, a 20-minute boat ride from the Gateway of India. This 7th century Hindu shrine was dug into a rock face atop a mountain, constructed by monks with hammer and chisel. Dedicated to the god Shiva, it depicts life stages of marriage and death, betrayal and punishment, love and loyalty. I also took the opportunity to visit the popular ISKCON temple for a Sunday Hare Krishna service. Parents, grandparents and children sang together as the priest twirled candles and chanted the scripture, showing the best of religion and humanity.

I leave India convinced that the market is a massive opportunity for smart businesspeople willing to play the India for India game, with affordable products sold via e-commerce and creator marketing. The country could well become the new linchpin for the region, avoiding the geopolitics while enabling its private sector to play in a deregulated context. The market is moving beyond outsourcing and low cost to quality and sophistication with a human touch. To my team at Edelman India, let’s roll!

Richard Edelman is CEO.

Edelman is working with the Chicago Bears on their quest for a new stadium. I went yesterday to visit with club President and CEO Kevin Warren at Halas Hall, the team headquarters named for team founder George Halas.

The Bears are one of the few NFL teams still owned by the founding family. George McCaskey is a third-generation chairman of the team, with Conor McCaskey in the fourth generation waiting in the wings. Virginia Halas McCaskey, daughter of George Halas, passed away last year at 102 years old.

For a lifelong Bears fan, yesterday’s visit was complete sports fantasy. Here’s what I learned:

Halas was a great athlete. Before his NFL career, he played for the New York Yankees baseball team. He held the NFL record for a fumble recovery and return for touchdown (98 yards) until 1972.
Halas served as Bears coach from 1920 to 1930, then again from 1933 to 1968. He pioneered the T Formation offense in the 1930s. My father’s fraternity brother at Columbia, Sid Luckman, perfected the T Formation to such an extent that the Bears slaughtered the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL Championship game 73-0.
He won six NFL championships, the last in 1963 against the New York Giants. I remember listening to that game on the radio in our living room, with quarterback Bill Wade scoring twice on one-yard sneaks.
Coach Halas was the first to name an African American as co-captain of the team in 1966 (Willie McRae). He grouped roommates by position, not by color (example: Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers, both running backs).
The Bears have more players in the NFL Hall of Fame than any other team. Among the notables are Red Grange, Sid Luckman, Gale Sayers, Dick Butkus, Mike Ditka and Walter Payton.

Many of my favorite childhood memories are related to the Bears. My brother John and I would take turns playing Sayers and Butkus, trying to run over each other in my bedroom. I called Sid Luckman, the best Bears QB of all time, Uncle Sid. He told me that my father helped him with his homework in ZBT House at Columbia. Brian Piccolo came to speak at my Latin School Varsity Club dinner when he was halfback for the team, the year before he contracted a fatal disease.

The Bears deserve a stadium worthy of a world-class team. We are working hard to achieve that goal, one family business helping another. This quote from George Halas says it all. “Nothing is work unless you’d rather be doing something else.”

Richard Edelman is the CEO.

25 Years of Trust

Inside Edelman: Meet our U.S. Culture Champions – Ty Meza

Tell us about your Edelman journey.

You were nominated for Culture Champion by your colleagues – how do you foster a collaborative and respectful culture within your team?

How does your personal background play a role in your professional life?

When you think about the future of Edelman, what does it look like for you?

What recommendations would you give to colleagues who are trying to make more connections at work? How do you think these connections have benefited your work?

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