The Page Center's Advisory Board is chaired by Roger Bolton, an independent public relations counselor and member of APCO Worldwide's International Advisory Council. Founding members of the Board include Lawrence G. Foster, original chair of the Center and former corporate vice president of public relations at Johnson and Johnson; Edward M. Block, retired senior vice president of public relations at AT&T; John A. Koten, retired senior vice president of corporate communications at Ameritech; Douglas A. Anderson, dean of the Penn State College of Communications; and John S. Nichols, retired associate dean for graduate studies and research. Marie Hardin, associate professor of journalism and associate dean for undergraduate and graduate studies in the College of Communications is the Page Center Director. Cinda Kostyak serves as associate director of the Center and as an ex officio member of the Board.

Members of the 2011/2012 Advisory Board include:

Lawrence G. Foster
Larry Foster assisted in forming Johnson & Johnson’s first Public Relations Department in 1957, when the company had annual sales of $250 million. Upon his retirement 33 years later, the company had grown 40 times larger and had sales of $10 billion.  During his tenure with Johnson & Johnson, he was Director of Public Relations and Assistant to the Chairman before becoming Corporate Vice President of Public Relations and an officer of the company in 1973.

In 1982, Foster led Johnson & Johnson’s highly acclaimed response to the Tylenol poisoning tragedy. Following Foster’s lead, Johnson & Johnson was completely open with the public, put its interest first and withdrew 32 million packages of Tylenol from the market.  Because of Foster’s successful and ethical strategies, PR Week magazine named him one of the ten most influential public relations executives of the 20th Century.  

An author of several books, Foster is the recipient of four of the highest awards in the public relations field, the 1989 Gold Anvil Award, the 1998 Atlas, the 1994 Hall of Fame Award, and the Alexander Hamilton Medal for lifetime achievement in 2007.

Edward M. Block
Ed Block was senior vice president — public relations, advertising and employee information for the AT&T Corporation for 12 years until his retirement in 1986. He was responsible for corporate communications during AT&T's historic divestiture of the Bell telephone companies and its expansion into international markets. He also held the additional post of assistant to the chairman of the board from 1980 until his retirement and was a member of the Office of the Chairman.

While at AT&T, Block was a director of AT&T International and AT&T Information Systems. He established the AT&T Foundation and was its first chairman of the board. It was on his initiative that AT&T provided the funding ($10 million a year for five years) to establish the MacNiel-Lehrer NewsHour on PBS. He was a director of C&P Telephone Company and a director of Electronic Associates, Inc. (NYSE), a New Jersey based maker of simulation computers for defense and aerospace applications. He was also a director of NCR Corporation. He was President of the American Council for the Arts, a director of the National Arts Stabilization Fund and a trustee of the Joint Council on Economic Education. He was a member of the Public Information Committee of the Business Roundtable. He also served very briefly in the White House in the early days of the administration of President Gerald Ford.

In 1980, PR News chose Block as the Public Relations Professional of the Year. In 1993, he received the lifetime achievement award from Inside PR and also, the Hall of Fame Award of the Arthur W, Page Society . In 1997, he received the Gold Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America. Most recently, he was cited by PR Week as one of the 100 most influential public relations people of the 20th century.

From 1988 until 1996, he was President of the Block, Macdonald Group, Inc., consultants to a number of multi-national corporations.  Currently, he is a member of the editorial board of Key West's daily newspaper, The Citizen, where he writes the lead editorials on local issues.

John A. Koten
Jack Koten is a founding director and first president of the Arthur W. Page Society .  During his career he worked in a variety of operating, financial and corporate communications departments for Illinois Bell, AT&T, New Jersey Bell and Ameritech. At Chicago-based Ameritech Corp., one of seven telecommunications companies divested by AT&T in 1984 as the result of a federal government antitrust lawsuit, he served as senior vice president of corporate communications. He also was president of the Ameritech Foundation, which made grants totaling $25 million annually to education, economic development and cultural institutions. While at Ameritech, he was responsible for all external and internal communications, government relations and reputation management. At Ameritech the major challenge his department faced was creating a corporate identity clearly distinguishable from its former parent, AT&T. Building an independent reputation for excellent service, good management and strong financial performance was important to attract customers and investors. But equally, if not more significant, was establishing employee loyalty to the new organization. After he retried, Koten organized The Wordsworth Group, a consulting firm dedicated to assisting non-profit organizations to improve their management practices, reputation and revenues. He has received numerous awards and honors, including honorary doctoral degrees from two institutions, and was inducted into the Arthur W. Page Society's Hall of Fame in 1995.

Maril MacDonald
Maril MacDonald, CEO of Gagen MacDonald and past president of the Arthur W. Page Society, is well respected for her expertise in the field of communications and strategy execution.  Prior to founding Gagen MacDonald, she led communication and brand strategy for International Truck and Engine Corporation, and with CEO John Horne, directed a cultural turnaround that eventually led International to the Wall Street Journal’s “Top 10 Performers” list and Business Week’s “Top 50 Companies”.

Chicago-based Gagen MacDonald offers clients leadership assessment and coaching, organizational design, diversity strategies and information flow management.  The firm, formerly known as Matha MacDonald LLC, changed to Gagen MacDonald in honor of Maril’s father and to personify the integrity his name represents.

MacDonald was named by PR Week as one of “the 50 Most Powerful Women in PR” and recognized as a “PR All-Star” by Inside PR.

Roger Bolton
Roger Bolton is past president of the Arthur W. Page Society and current senior counselor to APCO Worldwide, a leading global public affairs and corporate communications consultancy. Bolton began his career as a journalist before serving as a press secretary for a member of Congress.  He was director of speechwriting for the Reagan/Bush re-election campaign, and was eventually confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for public affairs and public liaison under President Bush in 1989.  Bolton was recently appointed chair of the Arthur W. Page Center.

As senior vice president of communications for Aetna, Bolton led a group of senior Aetna executives to think about culture and organizational effectiveness, which resulted in the creation of the Aetna Way, with integrity as its first fundamental value.

Willard D. "Bill" Nielsen
Bill Nielsen retired as corporate vice president of Johnson & Johnson in December 2004, after a 17-year career with the company. He was responsible for public relations and corporate communications for the worldwide health care products company, and he served as an officer of the corporation.

Mr. Nielsen joined Johnson & Johnson in 1988, following an 18-year career as a public relations agency consultant, first with Carl Byoir & Associates, from 1970 to 1986, and then Hill and Knowlton.

Mr. Nielsen continues to be active in the leadership of professional organizations in the field of public relations. He served two terms as president of the Arthur W. Page Society and was inducted into that organization's Hall of Fame in September 2003. In addition, he is a past chairman of the Public Relations Seminar. He also chaired the board of the Institute for Public Relations Research and Education and served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Global Public Affairs Institute. He continues to serve on the Board of The Arthur W. Page Society and on The Committee of The Public Relations Seminar, and is a member of, The Wisemen, the National Press Club, and the Public Relations Society of America. He has won four PRSA Silver Anvils. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Josephson Institute of Ethics. In October 2003, Mr. Nielsen held the honor of delivering the Distinguished Vernon C. Schranz Lecture at Ball State University. In November 2005, Mr. Nielsen delivered the 44th Annual Distinguished Lecture for The Institute for Public Relations.

Mr. Nielsen is a native of Sacramento, California. Following graduation from Oregon State University, he served for five years as a public information officer with the U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C., and Japan. He is married and is the father of three daughters.

William G. Margaritis
William G. (Bill) Margaritis, senior vice president, global communications and investor relations of FedEx Corporation  began his term as persident of the Arthur W. Page Society on January 1, 2010.

Margaritis oversees global reputation management, investor relations, public relations, employee communications and social responsibility programs for FedEx and its subsidiaries. He has been with FedEx since May 1997. During his tenure FedEx has been consistently ranked as one of the most admired companies in the world and recognized as a “best place to work.”

Prior to joining FedEx, Margaritis was vice president of Bechtel International, based in London, England, and was responsible for managing public relations and marketing communications for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Southwest Asia. He also worked in Washington, D.C., and Athens, Greece, for separate divisions of the company.

Jon Iwata
Jon Iwata is senior vice president, marketing and communications for IBM.  Jon joined the communications function of IBM in 1984 at the company's Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley, moving to corporate headquarters in New York in 1989. He was appointed vice president of Corprate Communications in 1995 and senior vice president, communications, in 2002.  He assumed his current role on July 1, 2008. 

Iwata currently leads IBM's marketing, communications and citizenship organization. He is a member of the IBM Operating Team, the Strategy Team, and is vice chairman of the IBM International Foundation.  Iwata also serves on the Technology Committee of the Museum of Modern Art and was recently elected chairman of the Arthur W. Page Society.

Iwata is co-inventor of a U.S. patent for advanced semiconductor lithography technology.

Douglas A. Anderson
Doug Anderson has served since July 1999 as professor of journalism and Dean of the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University, the country’s largest nationally accredited program.  Prior to that, he was Cronkite Endowment Board of Trustees Professor and director of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication at Arizona State University.  He is author or co-author of six books, two of which have gone into subsequent editions:  A “Washington Merry-Go-Round” of Libel Actions, Contemporary Sports Reporting (in its second edition), Electronic Age News Editing, Contemporary News Reporting, News Writing and Reporting for Today’s Media (in its seventh edition) and Writing the News.  He also has written more than 70 academic articles, papers, book chapters and workbooks.  His articles have appeared in academic and professional publications, including Journalism Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, American Journalism, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, APME News and Grassroots Editor.

Anderson earned a Ph.D. in journalism from Southern Illinois University, where he was a graduate fellow.  He has been cited for excellence in teaching by the Modern Media Institute (now the Poynter Institute for Media Studies) and the Associated Press Managing Editors. Anderson, a former daily newspaper reporter, sports editor and managing editor, is a past president of the Nebraska Associated Press Managing Editors Association.  He also is a past president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication and of the Southwest Education Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.  

He has been active in the journalism-mass communications’ accrediting process since 1990.  He has served three three-year terms on the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, chairing its long-range planning committee from 1992-1994 and chairing its standards review committee from 1994-1996. He has served four three-year terms on the Council’s national accrediting committee, which he served as chair from 1994-1997 and as vice chair in 1993-1994.  From 2004-2006, he served again as chair.  Since 1990, he has chaired accrediting site-team visits to or conducted pre-accreditation visits to some 40 universities.

He serves also as chair of the steering committee of the Journalism Awards Program of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.  In 1996, The Freedom Forum named him Journalism Administrator of the Year, the youngest person ever to receive the award.  In 1997, he served as inaugural fellow at the Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center in San Francisco, where he conducted a study of the state of journalism-mass communication education.  He served on the faculty at Arizona State from 1979 to 1999.

John S. Nichols, emeritus professor of communications, is the founding director of the Page Center. Nichols taught international communications at Penn State since he joined the faculty in 1977 and specialized in Cuban communication issues for nearly three decades. His current research focuses on international propaganda, the right to travel, and the role of media in conflict. Nichols is the co-author or contributing author of three books that have received the Choice "Outstanding Academic Book" award and is the author of numerous other publications in international communications and foreign affairs. He is a past chair of the University Faculty Senate and, in 1999, won Penn State's "Most Innovative Teacher" award. His Ph.D. is from the University of Minnesota.

Marie Hardin, associate professor of journalism and associate dean for graduate studies and research in the College of Communications, is the director of the Page Center.  Hardin, a former journalist, freelance writer and newsroom consultant, has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate classes and has been actively involved in three Centers in the College, all of which focus on linking the academy with the communications professions.

Past Advisory Board members include:

Thomas Martin, past president of the Arthur W. Page Society and former Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Relations at ITT Corporation.  Mr. Martin is the current Executive in Residence at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

Marilyn Laurie
Marilyn Laurie joined AT&T in 1971 as a nationally recognized environmentalist who helped create Earth Day and the Environmental Action Coalition.  In  2002, Ms. Laurie was elected to the Arthur W. Page Society’s Public Relations Hall of Fame.  She was named one of “New York’s 75 Most Influential Women” by Crain’s, named a PR All-Star twice by Inside PR magazine, and received the Human Relations Award of the American Jewish Committee among many other honors.  Ms. Laurie was a Trustee of Columbia University, a Director of the New York City Ballet and was President of Laurie Consulting, Inc, which develops branding and public relations strategies for corporations and nonprofit organizations.