Traveling has always been a passion for Bettina Garibaldi (’04) – so much so, in fact, that she’s made it a significant part of her thriving career.
She currently serves as senior vice president at Ketchum, a global public relations firm, focusing on travel destination marketing. In recognition of her success, PR Week recently named her to its “40 Under 40” list.
“It’s a tremendous honor,” said Garibaldi. “The other names in our ‘Class of 2020’ are doing some pretty remarkable things, and—especially this year—we are all looking for some positive news.”
One of Garibaldi’s proudest professional accomplishments is a promotional campaign she ran to drive tourism to Puerto Rico.
“We’ve been working with them for a little more than three years and began right when they were coming off the Zika epidemic,” she explained. “Then two hurricanes devastated the island. Helping to reinvigorate tourism after that and turn around their story was unique and rewarding.”
The daughter of an Argentinian diplomat, Garibaldi grew up all across the world, in Argentina, Australia, the Philippines, and New York. She – along with four of her siblings – chose to attend Baruch while her father was stationed in New York. She was particularly active on campus, serving as vice president of Undergraduate Student Government and as Editor in Chief of the Lexicon yearbook.
Internships at the Walt Disney Company and MTV Networks eventually led to a full-time job at global communications firm Weber Shandwick. In 2009 she started at Ketchum after graduating from graduate school and has been there ever since. She’s worked Communications for everything from Gillette to Cover Girl to Pfizer to Frito-Lay – and even got to meet her soccer idol, Lionel Messi, during a campaign for the 2014 World Cup. She remains particularly excited by all of the possibilities and changes she’s seen in her industry.
“Marketing and public relations in general are transforming,” she said. “There are gray lines between all these different disciplines. It’s just an exciting time to be in this industry, and making the list from PR Week is a real honor to break through among some truly great competition.”