William M. Murray, CAE
President and Chief Operating Officer
William (Bill) M. Murray, CAE, is president and chief operating officer of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals, with nearly 32,000 professional and student members.
Murray is responsible for the overall direction of PRSA, which was chartered in 1947. The Society’s primary objectives are to advance the standards of the public relations profession by providing members with guidance regarding the ethical practice of public relations, creating a community of like-minded professionals, and offering development opportunities through continuing education programs, information exchange forums and research projects conducted on the national and local levels.
Before consulting, Murray was executive vice president and co-chief operating officer of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the international trade association representing the international interests of the major Hollywood studios in more than 70 countries across the globe. During his time at the MPA, Murray was instrumental in designing a framework for multinational media companies to respond to the challenges presented by changing technology. He designed the MPA’s first strategic plan, worked with a variety of foreign governments on film production and trade policy, and held a series of positions at the MPA that included responsibility for the association’s international operations, strategic planning, market research and digital strategy.
Murray also was president of William Murray & Associates, a consulting firm focused on developing international media strategies for digital content protection, audiovisual regulation, film production tax policy and international government relations, with clients including venture capital firms, governments and media companies.
Murray serves on the board of the Global Alliance for Public Relations, the New York Society of Association Executives, and is a senior fellow at the University of Southern California (USC) Center for the Digital Future.
Murray holds a dual-discipline B.A. in business administration and English literature from Albright College in Reading, Penn., as well as an M.B.A. in international management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz., and is a Certified Association Executive (CAE).
Phillip T. Bonaventura
Chief Financial Officer
Philip T. Bonaventura, PRSA CFO, came to PRSA in June 2007 with more than 22 years of experience as a certified public accountant and business executive. Before coming to PRSA, Bonaventura was the vice president of finance and operations at United Nations Association of the United States of America Inc. (UNA-USA), the leading grassroots foreign policy organization and the leading center of policy research on the U.N. and global issues. Prior to UNA-USA, Bonaventura held senior-level positions in financial operations of major investment firms, nonprofit organizations and corporations. Bonaventura is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, and New York Society of Association Executives. He holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
