A senior PR Society member, commenting on PRS’s IRS Form 990 received in the past few days by odwyerpr.com, which showed three male executives getting hefty pay hikes while two women executives got pay cuts, said this is further indication of an anti-female bias in the elected leadership and in the staff.

VP-PR Arthur Yann got a 25% hike to $163,271 and a total pay package of $186,485; CFO Phil Bonaventura got an 18% raise to $196,829 (total package of $235,797), and VP-corporate development John Robinson got a 9% raise to $147,713 (total package of $192,373).

COO Bill Murray got a $4,782 raise to $329,913 (total package of $382,013).

VP-special events Karla Voth took a pay cut to $147,713 from $152,279 and director of professional development Judith Voss saw her pay drop to $117,927 from $121,004.

Total payroll was cut about a half million, from $5,529,699 to $5,083,323.

The 2012 board was eight women and seven men, the first female plurality in the history of the Society, and the 2013 board will be 12 women and five men.

About 40 of the 50 largest chapters are headed by women and women comprise more than 70% of the membership, according to PRS.

Men Also Take Top Offices


Here is the posting by the senior member who also notes that by 2015 six of the seven most recent national chairs will have been men:

How intriguing. The men -- NONE of whom have been there for as long as Karla or Judy -- get raises, the women get PAY CUTS??????????????

Karla runs the Society's two biggest revenue programs (conference, Anvils) and Judy runs the other major revenue stream (professional development).

So they get salary demotions while Arthur Yann who does more to embarrass the Society (tweeting under an anonymous name) than to help, gets at 25% raise????

This in the same year that the woman candidate for Chair and CEO gets sent back to be secretary, while a guy who's only been a member for a few years gets to be president? So the executive committee is four men, one woman? While the Society membership and the profession are predominantly female?? By 2015, 6 of the most recent 7 national Chair/CEOs will have been men -- Julin, Cherenson, McCormick, Corbett, Nall and Cohen, with only ONE woman in the list (Fiske in 2011).

Like the GOP, suddenly PRSA seems to be going back to its roots as a bunch of white men running the show -- the only difference is they're younger, and most of them are far, far from "industry leaders."

— Jaundiced Observer