The communication business is evolving at a rapid pace. That means communications professionals need to adapt to the changing needs of their companies and expanded roles they may take on. In this episode of the Can You Hear Me? Podcast, co-hosts Eileen Rochford and Rob Johnson welcome Marci Pelzer, Corporate Affairs Director at Worley, to discuss “The Future of Comms.”
Marci Pelzer is Director of Corporate Affairs at Worley, where she brings more than 20 years of expertise in strategic communications.
Marci has held key leadership positions at Rockwell Automation, SC Johnson, Time Warner Cable and ManpowerGroup. She is a proud graduate of Marquette University and the Kellogg School of Management.
Outside of work, she enjoys reading, traveling, volunteering and pursuing her passion project, What Dan Read.
Marci resides in Milwaukee.
Rob Johnson: [00:00:22] Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of the Can You Hear Me podcast. I'm Rob Johnson, president of Rob Johnson Communications. [00:00:27][5.6]
Eileen Rochford: [00:00:28] And I'm Eileen Rochford, CEO of the marketing and strategy firm, the Harbinger Group. You've listened to our show recently, you know that we have been focused on the evolution of the communications industry. Once upon a time, marketing was the primary focus for many communicators, but now the job is morphing with government affairs, investor relations, and even corporate affairs, taking on far greater importance. [00:00:47][18.7]
Rob Johnson: [00:00:47] That's true. And we really want to discuss this today and the future of comms and some other topics as well. To do this, we're joined by Marci Pelzer. She is Director of Corporate Affairs at Worley, which is the world's largest provider of engineering, project management, and asset management solutions in the energy, chemicals, and resources sectors. Marci, welcome to Can You Hear Me? [00:01:07][20.3]
Marci Pelzer: [00:01:08] Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm so excited about the conversation today. [00:01:10][2.6]
Rob Johnson: [00:01:11] We are too. So Marci, before we dig into the future of comms and a few other topics as well, why don't you give us your background, your origin story, if you will. [00:01:19][7.7]
Marci Pelzer: [00:01:19] Sure. I came up through the journalism and nonprofit world. I was, as many of us were, a high school newspaper editor, very involved in college journalism, journalism major. And then I wanted to take a year to do service after I graduated from college. That led me to Second Harvest Food Bank, now called Feeding America of Wisconsin. I worked there for a couple of years, and then I worked for the Women's Fund of Greater Milwaukee for a couple of years, and then I started my corporate career seven years later after a interlude of freelancing. [00:01:54][35.4]
Eileen Rochford: [00:01:55] Very nice. Okay. Well, that's an interesting start, you know, considering where you ended up where you are today. So yeah, so your journalism years at the beginning and your focus working in the nonprofit sector as well. How did all that shape you and help you send help send you down this path that you have been on most recently? [00:02:16][21.2]
Marci Pelzer: [00:02:16] Two things are important about working for nonprofits. First is you're grounded right away in the value of authentic storytelling, which all these years later in the world of AI, that just becomes more important every day. But the other thing nonprofits taught me were how to be scrappy. Get in there, anything you raise your hand to do, they're gonna let you do it. And it's a safe environment to kind of figure things out by really doing things. I know lots of people, great people who came up through the agency world, and that's a different model where you're kind of watching and assisting and gradually being promoted. When you work at a nonprofit, you're just thrown in right away and you just have to figure it out. And I think that's great background. [00:02:58][41.0]
Eileen Rochford: [00:02:59] Can you think of anything you had to do in those first few years that you were like, God, this is a lot of responsibility or I don't even know how to start, but you figured it out? Do you have any fun stories from that? [00:03:08][9.7]
Marci Pelzer: [00:03:08] Oh yeah, I mean they would ask me if I'd ever written a radio spot before and I'd say well sure and then I'd go to the library. Book out and figure it out or call people in my network. The other trick I used to do in those days is I would just read the newspaper and if people seemed interesting, I'd call them up and go see them if they worked at a nonprofit that was interesting. And as an older person, I don't know how I would react to that approach, but it worked for me when I was in my 20s and clueless. Maybe people were taking pity on me, but it was a great way to network and met some great people that way. [00:03:42][33.8]
Rob Johnson: [00:03:42] So when you're probably, I'm sure now in the corporate world, you look back at your not-for-profit experience and think, oh my gosh, we were plucky. We had to really be on our toes all the time. Not that you don't in the world, but when you were going for those corporate jobs, was the not- for-profit background appealing to the people that were hiring you? Did you have to sell it? How was it received when you are focusing on a corporate gig? [00:04:09][26.4]
Marci Pelzer: [00:04:09] Well, I took a break from nonprofits and did seven years of freelancing. And most of my clients were nonprofits when I was freelancing and what I was able to sell to get into the nonprofit world, or excuse me, to get into the corporate world was, you know. The entrepreneurial story and you know how I had to create my own business and support myself and figure it out without having a grounding of having most people do it the other way they start out in the corporate world. So I eventually found an employer that wanted to hear that story but it was a I would say it was a non-conventional way to get into corporate. I see the value and I look for people who have backgrounds like mine but it was tough story to tell at the beginning Certainly. I can see that. You're right. [00:04:53][44.2]
Eileen Rochford: [00:04:54] Is almost the absolute inverse of the way that you typically hear. So how challenging, but good for you for pulling it out and turning your story into, you know, so that's, that's pretty darn [00:05:05][11.9]
Rob Johnson: [00:05:05] So what we have neglected to say thus far is that during this time, I believe when you're freelancing, if I'm not mistaken, right, Marci, you went to get your MBA, was that that was after not for profit and while you're freelancing? Is that when that happened? [00:05:18][13.4]
Marci Pelzer: [00:05:19] Yes. So the second era of my career has been working in corporate communication roles. So I've worked at Manpower, Time Warner Cable, SC Johnson, Rockwell, and now Worley, which is an Australian based publicly traded company. And, you know, at a certain point, all of us as communicators, we want to seat at the table, we wanna show our strategic business value. And I thought the best way to do that was to go and get an MBA. So that was later in career. I actually turned 40 while I was in school, but it's been immensely valuable in, I think, elevating the function at every company I've worked with and, you know, helping to bring these business leaders along. [00:05:59][40.3]
Rob Johnson: [00:06:00] So you can see that you were only going to get so high with what you had done educationally and experience wise prior to that, and you knew that that MBA was going to allow you to have that seat at the table, to get those higher jobs, to have a greater impact. Is that right? [00:06:13][13.6]
Marci Pelzer: [00:06:13] Right. Absolutely. So many people see communicators as people who make the decks pretty or write the press releases. And I think our jobs as communicators, whatever we do is to be elevating the function to be moving the whole team in the direction where it's we're seen as strategic business advisors, making the case for a chief communication officer who reports to the CEO, moving the function totally in that direction. And that's what that's been helping to do. [00:06:43][29.5]
Eileen Rochford: [00:06:43] Yeah. And the morphine of government affairs, investor relations, corporate affairs, when it comes to everything that is, you know, corp comms and marketing these days, your MBA must have really given you an advantage as that trend right now is accelerating. [00:06:59][16.0]
Marci Pelzer: [00:07:00] Yeah, I will say it gave me an advantage. And I also, when I talk to journalism students and educators, I also think it's something lacking in communication education. Part of your journalism education as an undergrad, you should be able to read a balance sheet and understand basic accounting. And with where data is going and data-driven storytelling, the fact that you have to go find that after you graduate, I'd love to see that incorporated into undergrad communications programs. Not that I wouldn't have gotten. [00:07:32][32.2]
Eileen Rochford: [00:07:33] MBA anyway. Right. Did you know that? You probably do. Because we have failed to mention that Marcie is yet another amazing grad from Marquette University. Thank you very much. [00:07:42][9.7]
Rob Johnson: [00:07:44] We would be remiss if we did not mention that in the first portion of the of the podcast what's [00:07:49][5.2]
Eileen Rochford: [00:07:49] I mean, for real. Exactly, Rob. Okay. Well, so speaking of Marquette University, did you know that the work comms major is housed in the business school at Marquett? When did that happen? I had no idea. Well I, you know, somebody correct us if, or correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my understanding largely because we've had... I've been interviewing intern candidates and looking at their resumes, and I saw two work com majors come through my interview on campus, and their resume said that that's there in the college. [00:08:21][32.1]
Rob Johnson: [00:08:21] Well, you answered my question, which was going to be, do you know any place that's doing it at the undergrad level? And you're like, I do. [00:08:26][4.7]
Eileen Rochford: [00:08:27] That's the impression that I have, Mercy. I will investigate further and put it in the show notes if I'm wrong, but that is the impression that I had. [00:08:33][6.2]
Marci Pelzer: [00:08:34] That's what's happening, I love it. [00:08:35][1.1]
Rob Johnson: [00:08:37] I don't think you're wrong, but if you were wrong, maybe you don't have to change anything. Maybe you just spur them to say, since I told everybody it was in the business school, maybe that's right. [00:08:45][8.7]
Eileen Rochford: [00:08:48] It's so easy to create change in higher education and how could you go, of course I can. [00:08:53][4.7]
Rob Johnson: [00:08:53] Your will, Eileen. [00:08:54][0.7]
Eileen Rochford: [00:08:56] Right. There are no bad ideas, Sharon. Can you hear me, folks? That's great. Okay. So, all right, let's take it back for a sec. So you talked about you're in this amazing role at this company that I'm so curious about. And yes, the description was a bit of a mouthful, but I think we'd love to know more about, you know, you as the corporate affairs director at Whirly. What does Whirley do really? And what do you do as the director? [00:09:22][26.9]
Marci Pelzer: [00:09:23] About that. So we are about a $7 billion company in American dollars. We are traded on the Australian stock exchange publicly traded, but that's been a fun thing to learn about after working at all of these NYSE exchange traded companies. Nearly 40,000 employees and we design and build the most complex projects in the energy sector. So oil and gas projects, power, renewable energy, mining, process, that sort of thing. So it's very fast pace and high stakes. And you know, like every other team, we've got to lean and mean. Group that works very efficiently, globally. I lead a very small team that has, people on my team are in three different countries. So it's round the clock, it's fast paced. Somebody works halfway through a project and then we give it a bed and someone else in another part of the world picks it up for eight more hours, that kind of job, love it. Yeah. [00:10:25][61.8]
Rob Johnson: [00:10:26] So even though you're probably working longer than eight hours, too, I was going to say, do you ever sleep, but you just answer that question that people are picking up the pieces of whatever part of the project needs to be done. But that does create a different rhythm in your life, doesn't it, when you have people in all kinds of different timezones, especially Australia? [00:10:43][17.1]
Marci Pelzer: [00:10:44] Yeah, it does. But that's the gig when you're global, right? I mean, y'all do it. And I'm sure Eileen, you're, I'm sure both of you have global, excuse me, global employees and global clients. [00:10:53][9.2]
Eileen Rochford: [00:10:54] Yep, I can totally relate to that. I'm wondering, what are the kind of evolving communication issues that you find yourself having to deal with, handle these days that are maybe new and different from what you experienced, either in a prior job or years ago at Whirly, I'm trying to get a feel for because we're watching things change literally at warp speed right now. I'm so curious what how that's impacting your company and the role of corporate affairs at Whirli. [00:11:25][30.3]
Marci Pelzer: [00:11:25] Um, you know, I will say a big emerging issue is cyber security. And, you now, I saw this in my last step in manufacturing at Rockwell too, where, um, the cyber security, the different kinds of issues and brief, um what you need to be ready to sell your clients. That's just coming faster and more furious every day. I would say coming up with AI policies, communicating about AI, how you as a communicator are going to use it, how to communicate, how, um. The differentiated way your company is using AI, I would say that's a big one. And then just, I mean, the geopolitical tensions in the last year with tariffs and inflation and the supply chain, all of those complex issues, as you both know, you have to have scenarios ready for a crisis, an issue to manage, you have be seeing around corners for what's coming next, all that. So, you know, that's why we like, you know the communications, you have to be a generalist, whatever you're doing, right? You have to have contacts, you have to do reading, you to be learning, you kind of looking around, being able to scan best practices you're seeing and figuring out how you can kind of scale it to your company and your budget and the team that you have. Yeah. Okay. One more question. [00:12:41][76.1]
Eileen Rochford: [00:12:42] Is that okay? My question is this. How can, in your opinion, C-suite leaders best utilize their internal communications function today? [00:12:53][11.4]
Marci Pelzer: [00:12:54] Um, well, I, I think, you know, I think the biggest quality differentiator is the communicator who has the access to the most information and the most. Data. So I would say that the first thing is making sure your communicator knows your goals, what's coming up for you, what is happening is incorporated in every part of your leadership program. But I'd say, you know, it's an iterative process where you're always kind of going back and forth and talking about the vision. You're pointing your communicators to what the competition is doing and what you like about it and what you don't like about it, and where the competitors are missing the mark or really hitting what you'd like to see, and just involving communications and developing the strategy from the beginning so you can be a strategic driver and not window dressing. Yeah, we hear that a lot these days, don't we Rob? [00:13:54][59.8]
Rob Johnson: [00:13:55] Absolutely. And I love it. You were sitting there really pondering that question, and then you just, that was your answer. So, that, that that was fabulous. You we're talking about looking around corners. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. [00:14:03][8.1]
Marci Pelzer: [00:14:03] It's kind of interesting. Did you see this research that came out last week from Cayman and Associates, where they say 87% of communicators report to the C-suite and 56% have a direct report to CEO? I mean, I think that's an important thing. Looking back on companies I've worked with, the closer your leader is to the CEO, the better you know the company and the more you can help. [00:14:28][24.5]
Rob Johnson: [00:14:28] Yeah. And that's what we're seeing more and more of. We've had a lot of people, and we've discussed it quite a bit, Eileen, right, about having those communicators have that seat at the table and have that access to the people you're talking about, Marci. [00:14:39][10.6]
Eileen Rochford: [00:14:39] Yeah, for sure. And the CCO role as well that you mentioned, the evolution and the need for it. [00:14:44][5.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:14:45] So you were talking about looking around corners, so I'm going to ask you to look around a corner. Eileen asked you about issues that you see coming up in this current day and age, but as we look forward two, three years, what does it look like for you and how important is it for you to sort of pay it forward to the next generation of communicators? So if we're looking ahead 24 months, what will we be concerned about? [00:15:09][23.6]
Marci Pelzer: [00:15:09] I'm so glad you asked that because, you know, we talked about this a little bit the other day. I think you get to a certain point in your career. Where you're not the rising star, the team is the rising star. So really thinking about what are the experiences my team needs to move forward, looking at educational opportunities for other what ones you want to be a part of. And also what I said about, you know, your job is to elevate the function, your job is To help your boss and the function kind of get to where they need to be in the company by delivering that business value all the time. Eileen, you and I both are a part of the Marquette Mentors program. I am the living embodiment of getting more than you put into mentoring. I'm actually spending Christmas with one of my former mentors through that program in Argentina this year. So, you know, I feel like when you take that view that your career at a certain point is about uplifting others, it pays in ways that You never expected. [00:16:09][60.0]
Eileen Rochford: [00:16:10] So true on the same wave like that's, that's all I think about right now. We're just starting this, this whole new initiative for 2026 for professional development at our firm. And that that's the entire reason for it. It's like, I don't care where, you know, these guys end up down the line in their career. But I know that at this moment, if they are not truly investing in learning about what's changing, and what they need to be able to do, we won't be able relate. That's that's all I'm thinking about. [00:16:42][32.1]
Marci Pelzer: [00:16:43] And that's your legacy, right? It's not the work you did. It's the people that you brought along. Like whatever you're working on right away, right now, I mean, for you as a business owner, I'm sure it's building the business and that has a bigger impact than a, you know, an annual communication program, but, you know, 10, 20 years down the line. I want to look back and see what the people I touched are doing. That's what excites me. [00:17:06][22.5]
Eileen Rochford: [00:17:07] You're so right. [00:17:07][0.3]
Rob Johnson: [00:17:07] Well, what you're talking about, though, both of you, and Eileen and I talk about and have talked about it quite a bit on the podcast, is being a Webrand D-suite executive as opposed to a Mebrand. It's all about me. It's about what I do. It is all about the orders that I bark out. You're talking bringing everybody else along for the ride because you're right. You're only going to be as good as the team that you have, right, Marci? So you all are Webrand D-Suite executives. So naturally, you would subscribe to that sort of theory. I love it. [00:17:34][27.2]
Marci Pelzer: [00:17:35] Never heard that, but I want to steal it. [00:17:36][1.3]
Eileen Rochford: [00:17:37] It's one of his favorites. He loves it. It's so true. Oh, gosh. Okay. My next question for you is, is we're gonna shift a little more personal, because I know there's something really interesting that you can tell our listeners about. So as a young person, you had a front row seat to the importance of storytelling, as we've heard about from your nonprofit career in particular. But I also know that very recently, you've had an experience related to your dad that I'd love you to tell our listeners about. And I'm just going to tee it up as what Dan read. Tell us about what Dan red. I'm glad to. So my dad passed. [00:18:16][39.0]
Marci Pelzer: [00:18:16] In July at the age of 92, and he left behind a list of the 3,599 books he had read since 1964. I knew at his funeral that I wanted to give people the book list. It ended up being too long, so I put it on a website. We had a QR code in the program, and I thought that was it, and that was the coolest thing that anybody who went to the funeral could just have the Let's The Columbus Metropolitan Library grew up in Columbus, Ohio, got their hands on the website and made a tick tock that went to millions of people around the world. And I spent the whole summer talking to global media, to global reporters about my dad's list front page of the New York Times, CBS Evening News, people, Smithsonian magazine today.com. The calls are still coming. It's been so heartening to be able to, I wish everyone who had this experience could be able share and just continue to talk about what makes their loved ones so special because it's been an amazing experience to touch people around the world with my dad's story. [00:19:24][67.9]
Eileen Rochford: [00:19:25] Oh, and I've read so many of those stories and it's, um, first of all, my condolences. He sounds like he was in incredible, incredible human being and and father and I just said the way that you carried on his legacy with your storytelling about his love of reading is something just so admirable. And I'm sure lots of adults, children would love to be able to do the same, but you're setting that bar really high. How did you use your storytelling skills to go from a QR code to national media? How'd that happen? [00:19:56][31.4]
Marci Pelzer: [00:19:57] Well, I mean, I've got to say there was a lucky break that it all started in 2006. When I was visiting my dad at the senior living community he lived at and I asked him what he was reading and he brought out this list and I had never seen it. I was in my 30s and he was in his 70s and we think what was happening was that he was keeping it at work and um because some of the pages were on letterhead or purchase orders and I said dad this is incredible um a reporter would be all over this and so my mom said how do we get a reporter to write about it and I Well, you know, you could call the Metro columnist Columbus dispatch. So there is this beautiful story about him in the Columbus paper in ninth in 2006 that had some of his most famous gems in there. Like talking about, he was a security guard at the Marriott hotel overnight. And our family was two steps ahead of the sheriff at that time. So we had to make the extra money or that he found Ulysses to be pure torture. And, you know, it just really showed his relatability and his authenticity. And so when I was writing, when I was writing his obituary, I went back to his reading list and I, we asked everybody to read a real page turner in his honor. So people really love that. And I think that connected with the TikTok kind of wet people's appetite for this guy was a real character. Like we want to learn more about him. Um, and then the other thing that's been amazing is that it's connected to people in their 20s. So the young tick tockers are saying, you know, he was the OG of reading lists, or Dan could walk, Dan walks, so Goodreads could run. I mean, they just say that readers say the funniest things. So we actually have young people going on the list to see what Dan was reading the day they were born, things like that. So I don't consider myself a social media expert, but this was the perfect story for social media because everybody could kind of pull what they wanted out of it. But yeah, I mean, I think the world needs a happy story right now. Something authentic, relatable, human. It was just the right story at the right time. [00:22:10][132.9]
Rob Johnson: [00:22:10] I love the fact that you took something, your grief, you lost your father, my condolences as well, and you turned it into, you didn't know you were going to turn it into this, but you shared the list and then the list went viral. And by the way, we're going to put it in our show notes. I don't know if it's going to go viral again. It probably won't from that, but we will certainly share in our, our show notes. But all kidding aside, what a great way to honor him, right? And then you keep talking about him and talking about them. Here we are in a podcast, months later. Talking about it, you've talked globally about him, that has to be for you, I would think, and for your family, that it has to a little bit of therapy, isn't it? Just being able to remember him in such a positive way and to have people care about that story. [00:22:50][39.6]
Marci Pelzer: [00:22:50] Oh, absolutely. And if I could tell you a small story that's related to this, I didn't realize that he there was this program he started when he was in the Peace Corps in 1964 in Nepal. And there were these steamer trunks full of books that the Peace Corps sent to the Peace Corp volunteers, and they would pull from those. And it was a charming story. These books were left behind to seed libraries. And I'd never heard that story before. So on top of everything else, I was learning about all these wonderful things my dad's life that I only know about this because commenters from social media stories would email me and tell me about it. So that's been really special too. Even more than the therapy, what I've learned. Yeah. Oh my gosh. [00:23:31][41.3]
Rob Johnson: [00:23:31] That is unbelievable. What a great way to finish up, to have that story. It's so personal and it's so powerful. And the fact that it's worldwide, and to your point a little earlier about different generations, young people really embracing it and trying to figure out what he was reading when they were born, etc. I just think that's just something that will seemingly live forever. [00:23:51][20.0]
Eileen Rochford: [00:23:52] I hope so. I hope. So we hope so, too. We hope so too. Absolutely. [00:23:56][3.6]
Rob Johnson: [00:23:56] Well, Marci, we can't thank you enough for joining us today. You have made this episode of Can You Hear Me so special, so thank you for taking your time and talking about, well, we talked about a litany of things, and we ended with something really spectacular, and that's the memory of your father. [00:24:10][14.3]
Marci Pelzer: [00:24:10] I had the best time and I can't wait to share your podcast with all of my friends and turn me into a fan already. [00:24:16][5.6]
Eileen Rochford: [00:24:17] That's wonderful. Thank you. Thank thank you. Well, I'm sad this is coming to an end, but that will do it for another edition of Can You Hear Me? I'm Eileen Rochford. If you'd like to comment on the podcast or suggest a topic for us, we're always looking for new interesting guests like Marci. We'd love to hear about it. Just contact us via our Can You hear me page on LinkedIn. [00:24:41][24.1]
Rob Johnson: [00:24:42] We have a newsletter that you can find there as well. And I'm Rob Johnson. If you liked what you heard, please consider giving Can You Hear Me a positive review wherever you get your podcasts, such as Apple or Spotify, and helps other listeners find this podcast. Thank you so much for listening. [00:24:42][0.0]
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