Chris Foster

Chris Foster is the CEO of Omnicom Public Relations Group, overseeing 15 communications, consulting and public affairs firms within Omnicom. In his role, he is focused on talent, innovation and cross-agency collaboration to drive growth.

Chris previously was the President of North America at BCW Group, responsible for managing growth, talent and client relationships in the region.  Prior to the BCW merger, he was the Global Executive Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer for Burson-Marsteller, leading both organic growth and new business development across the global operation.  Chris took a break from public relations agencies in 2010 and spent 5 years at the global management consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, where he was Senior Vice President and Partner leading teams and growth across the government and civil business.

Chris has led national and global public awareness and communications campaigns for organizations such as the U.S Department of Defense, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Social Security Administration, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Amgen and Intel. He specializes in working with the federal government and private companies on understanding reputation risk and leveraging communications analytics to drive enterprise wide strategy.

Foster serves on the Board of Directors for The LAGRANT Foundation, The Institute for Public Relations, 4A’s, Public Relations Counsel (Vice Chairman) and the University of Virginia’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.  Foster is also a founding member of the Black Executive CMO Alliance (BECA) founded in April 2021.  He was named to PR Week’s “U.S. Power List” in 2021 (#17) and 2018 and has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University School of Continuing Studies, the University of Maryland and Western Kentucky University.

In 2017, Foster published his first book, “Reputation Strategy and Analytics in a Hyper-Connected World,” a cross-disciplinary resource for communication and digital professionals alike.

He earned an M.S. in Applied Behavioral Counseling from The Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in Philosophy from The University of Virginia.