KARL PLATH
Karl Plath draws from the experience, talent and judgment built on a 30-year career in corporate communications, public relations, marketing, investor relations and journalism. He has been an officer with two Chicago-area investor relations firm, including the nation’s largest, and also has been associated with highly respected Chicago public relations agencies.
Plath has represented dozens of clients in industries ranging from medical and technical to basic manufacturing, working with chief executives, chief financial officers and marketing executives of publicly traded and privately held companies. He has been responsible for program development and budgeting, consulting, media relations, materials development, investor prospecting and contact, community affairs and special events. He is equally at home with business-to-business and consumer communications.
Plath has been a recipient of numerous awards for investor relations and public relations programs, including: two “Golden Trumpet” awards from the Publicity Club of Chicago; a “Skyline Award” from the two Chicagoland chapters of the Public Relations Society of America for the best investor relations program in the area; a national CIPRA (Creativity in Public Relations and Advertising) award for an outstanding financial communications program; and several Financial World, Nicholson and ARC awards for top annual reports.
During his career Plath also directed media relations efforts for one of Chicago’s largest law firms, arranging media placements and writing bylined articles for the firm’s more than 350 lawyers. He wrote, edited and produced a quarterly employee publication, oversaw corporate communications programs and provided editorial and materials support for client seminars and newsletters.
Previously, he had extensive experience in public relations — as an agency executive, as a senior consultant and as a principal in his own agency — providing services to a broad range of consumer and business-to-business clients.
He also has more than a decade of experience as a daily newspaper reporter and editor, most recently with the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, covering diverse beats including business, federal courts, local government and statehouse correspondent in Springfield, Ill. Plath also has written more than 200 freelance articles published in the Chicago Tribune and several Chicago-area trade publications, including Metro Chicago Real Estate, Midwest Real Estate News, Illinois Real Estate Journal, Real Estate Today, Inland Architect and Illinois Realtor.
A former officer in the U.S. Army, Plath received his bachelor of science degree in journalism with a minor in French from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He and his wife have two children and reside in Chicago.
On public relations:
Public relations is about reputation — the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you ... Public relations practice is the discipline which looks after reputation with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior.
—Institute of Public Relations