Larry Weber

Larry Weber (born July 7, 1955) is an American entrepreneur[1] and the founder, chairman & CEO of Racepoint Global, a communications agency headquartered in Boston, MA. He has served as CEO of both mid-and large-scale companies, and has founded several other public relations and interactive marketing agencies including The Weber Group, ThunderHouse and W2. His clients have included AT&T, Boston Scientific, Coca-Cola, Deere, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Lotus, Microsoft, Panasonic, SAP, and Verizon Wireless.

For the American electrical engineer, see Larry F. Weber.
Larry Weber
Weber in January 17, 2014
Born (1955-07-07) July 7, 1955
Columbus, Ohio, United States
NationalityAmerican
Education
Known for
  • The Weber Group
  • ThunderHouse
  • Weber Shandwick
  • Racepoint Global
TitleFounder, Chairman, and CEO
Board member of
Awards
  • John J. Molloy Crystal Bell Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 2018 Bell Ringer Awards

Weber co-founded the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX), and was Executive Chairman of the MITX Board of Directors.[2] He also sits on the board of directors of Pegasystems, Inc. (PEGA) and the Clubhouse Network, and was on the board of Macromill Group, the Council of Competitiveness, and the Chair of the board of the Computer Museum. He is the author of several books including Authentic Marketing: How to Capture Hearts and Minds Through the Power of Purpose, published in 2019.

Career

The Weber Group

Weber started his own public relations company, The Weber Group, in 1987,[3] and shortly after launched Thunderhouse, an interactive marketing firm.[4] Within 10 years, The Weber Group was the world's largest and most established technology public relations firm.[2] Its clients included Verizon Wireless, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, General Motors, Hewlett Packard, Citrix, AOL, Lotus, and AT&T, among others.[5][6][7]

Weber Shandwick and The Interpublic Group of Companies

The Interpublic Group of Companies purchased The Weber Group in late 1996. During his time at IPG, Weber led the purchase of 21 public relations companies, among them Shandwick International, BSMG Worldwide, and GolinHarris. In 1999, Weber engineered the merger of Weber Shandwick and BSMG Worldwide to form the world's largest public relations firm,[8] and the company became Weber Shandwick Worldwide.[3][9]

In early 2000, Weber was named chairman and CEO of Interpublic's Advanced Marketing Services group, a $3 billion unit including the company's public relations, research and analysis, and entertainment holdings.[10]

The W2 Group and Racepoint Global

After leaving Interpublic, he founded the W2 Group and Racepoint Group in 2004.[11][6]

W2 Group

The W2 Group was created as a holding company under which global marketing companies could be bought and CMOs advised.[12][13] In 2007 it received its first funding round and in 2008 it had five companies.[3] It was organized into three groups: the companies, the innovations, and the content.[3]

Racepoint Global

Racepoint, founded in 2004, is one of Massachusetts’ largest public relations firms, with clients that have included ARM, Dassault Systemes, Deere, Kaiser-Permanente, Forrester, Panasonic, and the Pittsburgh Steelers.[7][6][14][5] Weber was the chairman and CEO of the firm.[6] In 2013, Weber merged Racepoint with its sister company, Digital Influence Group, a social media marketing firm to create Racepoint Global.[5]

Counseling governments

In addition to counseling many tech brands on marketing and business strategy, Weber provided PR direction for governments including the Kingdom of Jordan, Libya, and Rwanda.[15] He also led the marketing of the XO laptop by One Laptop per Child (OLPC).[16] OLPC aims to provide laptops to school-age children all over the world. It has been introduced in Afghanistan, Haiti, Pakistan, Rwanda, and South Africa.[16] In 2008, Racepoint Group won the United Nations Grand Award for “excellence in communication” for its OLPC campaign.[17]

Weber is also a guest lecturer at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.[18]

Appointments

Weber is on the board of Pegasystem and The Clubhouse Network.[7][19] He was the co-founder of the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX), and served on the board as chairman.[7] He was also on the executive committee of the Council on Competitiveness, the Macromill Group, served on the board of Babson College for 11 years,[20] and was chairman of the Computer Museum’s board of trustees.[21][22]

Bibliography

As of 2019, Weber is the author of the following books:

  • Authentic Marketing: How to Capture Hearts and Minds Through the Power of Purpose. Wiley, 2019. ISBN 1119513758
  • The Digital Marketer: Ten New Skills You Must Learn to Stay Relevant and Customer-Centric. Wiley, 2014. ISBN 1118760832
  • Everywhere: Comprehensive Digital Business Strategy for the Social Media Era. Wiley, 2011. ISBN 0470651709
  • Sticks and Stones: How Digital Business Reputations Are Created Over Time and Lost in a Click. Wiley, 2009. ISBN 0470457384
  • Marketing to the Social Web. Wiley, 2007; second edition 2009. ISBN 0470410973
  • The Provocateur. Crown, 2002. ISBN 0609608266

References
  1. "Larry Weber - Racepoint Global". Racepoint Global. Archived from the original on 2018-12-11. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  2. "Larry Weber, Official Member of Forbes Councils". Forbes Councils. Archived from the original on 2018-09-13. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  3. van der Pool, Lisa (March 17, 2008). "Larry Weber Marketing: The next generation". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  4. Jones, Sarah (October 26, 1998). "Cutbacks Rock McCann Unit Thunder House". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
  5. "Weber passes the baton at Racepoint Global". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  6. Summerville, Abigail (July 15, 2018). "Racepoint Global's Larry Weber reassumes role as CEO". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
  7. "The History of Tech PR with Larry Weber". CommPRO. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  8. "IPG Announces Weber Shandwick-BSMG Merger". PRovoke Media. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  9. "Interpublic's realignment felt in Chicago". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  10. Stamler, Bernard (2000-09-20). "The Media Business: Advertising -- Addenda; Changes Are Made In Public Relations". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  11. "Five things you should know about Larry Weber". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  12. "Chinese companies spend big to fend off Trump". Politico. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  13. Schwartzman, Eric (2007-11-16). "Building a Global PR Firm with Weber Shandwick Founder Larry Weber". Eric Schwartzman. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
  14. Pool, Lisa Van Der (September 8, 2003). "Racepoint Group Debuts". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
  15. ""How a U.S. agency cleaned up Rwanda's genocide-stained image"". The Globe and Mail. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  16. "Teens Bring Laptops to South African Children". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  17. "News Brief: Racepoint Group wins Award". www.prweek.com. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  18. "Board of Directors". The Clubhouse Network. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  19. "Board of Directors". Global STEM After School Program | The Clubhouse Network. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
  20. Business Journal, Boston (Feb 27, 2003). "Boston on the move: Larry Weber and Easton Ragsda". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-03-28. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  21. "Larry Weber and Atsushi Mizushima join Macromill Group board". MetrixLab. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  22. writer, Robin Estrin, Associated Press. "Computer and science museums join forces". New Bedford Standard-Times. Retrieved 2023-03-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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