CEO Stories: Communicating Success

City Makeovers

Baltimore needed an image makeover in the 1970s. Sandy Hillman was essential to the city’s revitalization. In her role as executive director of Baltimore’s Office of Promotion and Tourism, Hillman garnered favorable attention for successful projects such as the waterfront Harbor Place Development. In 1984 Hillman entered private practice to boost the branding of other cities. She insisted cities required strong public-private partnerships to launch and sustain improvements, and she went beyond the traditional approach of catering to conventions and meetings, by also targeting leisure travelers.

Corporate Leadership

After seeing how much mayors varied in quality, Hillman shifted her focus to public relations and advertising. She joined a firm that grew substantially and became its CEO before realizing that she preferred running a boutique. In 2007 she founded Sandy Hillman Communications. Her clients have ranged from historical museums to household products. She’s noticed that companies with good leaders are better positioned to communicate internally about mergers and acquisitions.

Women In Mind

Hillman believes that while women and men can both add value in leadership positions, their styles tend to differ. As a leader she’s sought to manage her teams with an understanding that female employees are often also homemakers and caretakers, which includes demands that male employees may not face. For instance, she’s been a working mother for almost five decades and began her career when that was a rarity. Hillman says flexible work environments can allow women to excel given these factors.