Kathy Cripps, who led the PR firm trade group PR Council for 13 years, is stepping down at the end of the year.

kathy crippsFormer PR Council chair Dave Senay of FleishmanHillard is leading a search committee created to find a new president.

Cripps joined the then-Council of PR Firms in 2002 after directing US healthcare for Hill+Knowlton Strategies. She also held posts at SCIENS Worldwide PR, Creamer Dickson Basford and Burson-Marsteller stretching back to the 1980s.

Cripps said it was a privilege to guide the "vital" PR industry group. "Now it's time for a new president to the take the Council to new heights," she said.

Christopher Graves, global chair of Ogilvy PR and current chair of the Council, said Cripps wrangled competing agencies into a "unified team in continual efforts to solve the biggest challenges, including diversity and inclusion, and our industry's evolution."

The group, founded in 1998 as the American Association of PR Firms, adopted the "PR Council" name last year as it considered dropping "PR" from the moniker amid media changes and the rise of digital marketing and content.