Ryan FitzGibbon
Managing Director
New York
Ryan FitzGibbon is a Managing Director at Prosek Partners where she works with leading traditional and alternative asset managers to provide strategic counsel and guidance on how to build and protect their brands to support their long-term business goals. Through her career, Ryan has developed particular expertise in brand building, narrative and messaging development, thought leadership, and crisis / issues management. She has also built deep relationships with leading voices in the financial media sector, including influential broadcast personalities, producers, and editors at major national and trade publications. She also spearheads the company’s book business, working with luminary leaders to promote these career capstones. Her work includes supporting the promotion of Ray Dalio’s New York Times Bests Sellers Principles: Life and Work and Principles for Dealing with the Changing World order, as well as Steve Schwarzman’s New York Times Best Seller What it Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence.
Prior to joining Prosek in 2013, Ryan got her professional start working for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, serving as the Press Secretary for the NYC Department of Buildings. During her tenure at the Department, she worked closely with the Mayor’s office to develop and implement a new long-term communications strategy for the agency to help overhaul and rebuild its image following a series of high-profile accidents in 2007 and 2008. At the Department, she got extensive exposure to crises and it is there where she built, no pun intended, the foundation for her expertise in this area.
Ryan holds a B.S. in Political Science and a minor in Irish History from New York University. She is an active volunteer for Girls on the Run, the national program that teaches young women how to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through learning to run a 5K, and is a longtime supporter of Pedal the Cause, the cycling challenge that raises millions of dollars annually to fund cutting-edge cancer research.
Q & A
What are you most proud of in your communications career?
I am very proud that I get to work for an amazing, women-owned and led organization that is a leader in the industry. I am also proud that I have been able to grow into a trusted advisor to the c-suite.
Name one thing most people don’t know about you.
That I could be a private investigator in another life.
How would your mother describe you?
Ekkk! I think she would lovingly say I am very strong willed (and then would maybe mutter under her breadth that I am stubborn 😊).
What are your greatest strengths as a communications practitioner?
I started my career in a really hectic environment. I was a 21-year-old intern in a city press office that was under daily assault from the local media and subsequently spent the next 5 years going from one crisis to another. This gave me an incredible crash course and strong foundation in the hardest parts of what we do as communicators and as a result, without a doubt strategic media relations and crisis / issues management are my strengths. These early years and my career since then have trained me to think about second, third and tenth order consequences, what the worst-case scenario could be and how to prevent it, and how to know the media inside and out. It also given me an edge to the way reporters think which not only helps me manage negative news, but also how to best showcase successes and harness the power of the media to tell compelling stories.
What is your favorite food?
Anything Asian, in particular soup dumplings.
Describe your perfect client.
Something that is complicated and out of the normal. I enjoy getting into the weeds and figuring things out and seeing how we could bring that firm’s story to life. I like the challenges and the rewards that come from delivering results for these types of clients.
What three hobbies or activities do you enjoy most?
Anything active – running, hiking, biking, paddleboarding, yoga, walking, swimming, skiing, surfing – I like to be in motion and challenging myself.
What’s your favorite part of the workday?
I love reading the news in the morning and helping to compile our industry scans, just keeps me super informed and on the ball, and there is also something therapeutic about the routine.
Who would play you in the movie version of your life?
I’ve been told Jennifer Aniston or Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s Chip and Jo.
What is your favorite quote?
“Only the good die young” – Billy Joel