Burson-Marsteller grassroots operation Direct Impact has promoted president Connie Partoyan to the role of CEO.
Partoyan succeeds Nicole Cornish, who took the chief operating officer position for Burson-Marsteller’s U.S. region in late 2014.
Partoyan has held the president title at Direct Impact since 2014, where she led client services, advised key client accounts and managed new business development. Prior to that she served as the public affairs unit’s executive VP.
Before joining Direct Impact in 2009, Partoyan served as chief of staff for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), was an administrative assistant and press secretary to Rep. Rick White (R-WA) and deputy press secretary to Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA). She was also previously counselor and senior advisor to the Department of Commerce’s Technology Administration, served as government affairs counselor for Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, and was executive VP and COO of Microsoft IT web service TechNet. She was also communications director for Washington, D.C.-based trade association the Information Technology Industry Council.
As CEO, Partoyan, will remain in the firm’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. She reports to B-M United States CEO Michael Law.
Direct Impact, which was founded in 1988, is the nation’s leading grassroots campaign communications firm, and holds additional offices in Boston, Austin and Chicago, as well as Toronto.
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