Franco Ripple

What I'm About

I'm a creative, experienced, Florida-based communications and public affairs professional. An award-winning practitioner, I've worked at the intersection of strategic communications, media relations, political campaigns, public policy and advocacy, digital and social media, community relations, coalition development, writing and content development, and consulting for 20 years.

With 15 years in communications and nine years of managing talented communications teams, I've counseled bipartisan elected officials and senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and associations. I've been fortunate to serve on winning presidential, gubernatorial, congressional, and state legislative campaigns, including a statewide primary race called "the upset of a lifetime."

Currently, I serve as Vice President at Direct Impact, the nation's leading public affairs firm and a subsidiary of Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), the world's third-largest communications agency and part of the WPP family of companies. At the firm, I manage corporate reputation, earned media, and public relations campaigns for national and international clients in the automotive, retail, energy, agriculture, and technology sectors. I also serve on the firm's management, business development, and thought leadership teams, and as a co-lead of BCW's parenting employee resource group (ERG).

Previously, I led strategic initiatives and innovation for a $1.7 billion, 4,000+ employee state agency and statewide elected policymaker, and advised the agency's communications and external affairs teams on strategic messaging, public engagement, media relations, and constituency outreach.

Among my specialties is crisis communications, having managed state agency communications through numerous emergencies and disasters including wildfires, hurricanes, floods, disease outbreaks, and product recalls, and managing on-scene client media relations through several mass casualty situations.

Quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, CNN, the Associated Press, POLITICO, and numerous national and local media outlets, I've secured millions in earned, paid, and owned media for clients, developed creative social media campaigns, defended the reputations of organizations and their leaders, and built successful grassroots coalitions that create change.

Most importantly, I'm a dad of three awesome little boys and husband to Ashley, a talented attorney here in Tallahassee, Florida.