Expertise

With professional experience in 60 countries on 6 continents in the financial services, government contracting, technology, aerospace, and defense industries, as well as government, Catherine Hernandez-Blades, is highly specialized in regulated industries, at big brands with large global footprints, heavy government oversight, and rigid compliance and governance requirements. She is an acknowledged expert in crisis and deep issues management, navigating leadership teams and boards of directors in high stakes, complex legal matters such as in RICO cases, class actions, durative suits, and executive personal conduct litigation, successfully shepherding companies and their boards of directors through protracted, contentious litigation, without impact to reputation or shareholder value. Importantly, she is a renowned speaker on the topic of the impact of ESG and CSR on company performance and has provided keynotes on the subject at international events in Tokyo, Paris, Davos, Cannes, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C. She is also an acknowledged media resource on the topic, contributing to six books and regularly to publications and sites like Forbes and Medium, and being interviewed on broadcast media, including tier one networks CNBC, ABC, and Fox Business News. As an outstanding presenter, the main topics she covers are:

• ESG for Bottomline Business Impact and Getting the Credit Your Company Deserves
• Deep Issues Management in a Generative AI World
• Measuring ROI on Brand and Reputation
• Navigating the Brand Through Contentious Litigation
• What Your CEO Needs to Know About Their Communications Function

Biography

Catherine Hernandez-Blades currently serves as an independent board director of corporations and non-profit organizations, notably CoreCivic, Inc. (NYSE: CXW) and as the U.S. representative on the advisory board of the World Communications Forum – Davos. She is also on the Executive Board of Delta Delta Delta Corporation – a not-for-profit women’s leadership development organization, and a Trustee of the Institute of Public Relations, which is an industry think tank. Prior to beginning full time board service, she held C-suite roles at three Fortune 500 companies, serving as the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at SAIC (NASDAQ: SAIC, previously NYSE:SAIC), Aflac (NYSE:AFL), and Flex (NASDAQ:Flex), creating the ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) organizations and leading change management and culture transformation  initiatives at all three companies. While at SAIC, she also ran a P&L, providing Marketing and Communications products and services to government agencies that require the work to be completed by highly cleared personnel, growing that part of the business consistently by over 25% year-over-year every year, and cutting non-labor expenses by 30% within the first three quarters of assuming the role.