PRISA, the Institute for Public Relations and Communication Management of Southern Africa will inaugurate Merle O'Brien as its new President, on 29 May 2005 at the Sibaya Casino & Entertainment Kingdom in Durban.
O' Brien (APR) is the youngest black woman president to serve PRISA's leadership in its 49-year history, having been a member of the Institute for 10 years, serving six years as a national board and council member and chairman of the Western Cape committee during 1998 to 2000.
Born in Cape Town, O'Brien's destiny for public relations was realised when she applied for a job as one of the first black account assistants with TWS Communications in 1996, where she recognised the impact made by the sector on social development. She is a passionate humanitarian, who also serves on the board of the Charities Aid Foundation for southern Africa and is Chief Executive of the Ivan O'Brien Foundation.
"Public relations is the lifeblood that sustains organisations and society as a whole," she says. "PRISA extends enormous goodwill among our members locally and abroad as it continually works to create mutual respect and understanding. I am humbled by the privilege to serve and lead such a honourable organization."
At special sessions held earlier this year, O'Brien articulated three key strategic focus areas for PRISA during her term of office: empowerment and transformation of the profession, ethics and sustainable development.
In sharing her vision for this professional body, O'Brien has engaged on several interventions with relevant stakeholders to have PRISA's empowerment and transformation addressed through a formal empowerment charter. She is strongly supporting PRISA's initiatives to use its Code of Ethics to encourage member compliance in a self-regulated and non-statutory profession. O'Brien believes that sustainability can only be achieved through good public relations i.e. strategic stakeholder management.
She regards public relations as the only profession that is dedicated to creating meaning, respect and tolerance, understanding and trust between organisations and people. Her view is that people cannot begin to address issues of sustainability unless they create platforms for stakeholders to define a common future.
O'Brien is founder and managing director of BlackRock, an award-winning communication firm, which is the exclusive South African associate of WORLDCOM - the world's largest group of independent public relations firms located in 33 countries.
She was the former executive director, operations and logistics for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. She is also a recipient of the Lebone Woman of the Year 2000 award and winner of the PRISA/Edelman/Baird's Vision award in 1998. In 2004, she was named one of The Star newspapers' fifty woman to watch.
She holds a BA degree from the University of Cape Town, a journalism certificate from Cape Technikon, a PRISA certificate in public relations management and APR international accreditation in Public Relations (with distinction).
PRISA continues to experience a steady growth in membership with a network across Africa through the Federation of African Public Relations Associations and the five continents as the secretariat for the Global Alliance for Public Relations & Communications Management. It is driven by a vision to be the recognized leader of the public relations and communication management profession in southern Africa and beyond.
PRISA will hold its 2005 national conference and annual general meeting at the Sibaya Casino & Entertainment Kingdom in Durban from 29 to 31 May 2005. The theme of the conference is 'Catch the Sunrise: Embracing communication at the dawn of the African century'. For more information on PRISA, please visit its website on http://www.prisa.co.za.
