Executive Search in Corporate Communications, Public Relations, and Public Affairs.
Jim Wills brings to each WCA engagement more than two decades of success in the corporate communications and public relations search field. He combines this with the perspective gained from a pre-search career in corporate communications, agency public relations, and management consulting---in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City.
Jim has personally conducted communications search and consulting projects for a diverse clientele, that includes some of the leading brands in the marketplace. Among them: Apple Computer, Bank of America, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Burson-Marsteller, Clairol, Converse, CreditSuisse, Deloitte & Touche, Dominion Resources, Edison Electric Institute, Frito-Lay, Fortune Magazine, The McGraw-Hill Companies, GlaxoSmithKline, General Electric, IBM Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan & Co., Ketchum Public Relations, KPMG, Lenovo Group, MasterCard International, Merck & Co., The New York Stock Exchange, and Washington (DC) Hospital Center/MedStar Health. Many of these have been multi-project clients.
Previously, Jim held communications management positions with McKesson Corp. in San Francisco, and with Booz Allen & Hamilton in New York City. Also at Booz Allen, he received training as a management consultant---a discipline he applies to the firm's search and consulting engagements. In the public relations agency sector, Jim held account management positions with leading regional firms in San Francisco and Seattle and with global leader Burson-Marsteller in New York. During this time, he gained hands-on functional experience in the areas that form the core of the WCA search portfolio.
He leveraged this experience to enter the communications search field in New York City in the mid-1980s and launched WCA in 1997. Jim has spoken on a variety of professional development and public relations industry issues before a wide assortment of academic and professional groups. Some topics: "Communications Convergence in the New Economy," "IR Without Gatekeepers: Foundations and Applications," and "Job Hunting Strategies for the New Communications Graduates."
Jim is a graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications of San Jose State University and completed executive courses from University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (corporate finance) and Harvard Business School (marketing). His memberships include the Public Relations Society of America, the Society for Human Resources Management, the International Association of Corporate and Professional Recruitment, and PRS: NY.