Deb
Mitchell

Deb Mitchell, member of APCO’s International Advisory Council, has influenced the futures of companies through good times and bad. Over the course of her career, she has seen a vast array of issues and developed the integrated enterprise perspective essential for strategic communications. With a background in both finance and communications, Deb has been successful as the gatekeeper of the hard-won reputations of these companies by making the complicated simple and telling stories that make it easy to understand a company’s vision, its core values, and its community engagement.

Most recently, Deb was the senior vice president of global corporate communications for Cardinal Health, a Fortune 20, $100 billion global product and services company. At Cardinal Health Deb led the company’s reputation, crisis management and acquisition integration communications. In this role, Deb provided guidance when the pharmaceutical industry was in the public limelight and was key to protecting the company’s reputation in the market.

Previously, Deb provided executive leadership in investor relations, strategic communications, and brand management at Limited Brands and Wendy’s, as well as serving as senior managing director at Dix & Eaton, a communications consulting firm. Across these companies, Deb drove the corporate communications that were essential to creating the interest and engagement of employees, customers, and the investment community to maximize valuation on an ongoing basis and in a variety of market transactions – IPO’s, acquisitions, divestitures, stock repurchases and spinoffs.

Deb has served the IR and Communications fields through boards, associations, and speaking engagements at conferences, including leading the National Investor Relations Institute as its Board Chair. Her company board experience includes the startup Vitality Distributing as an outside director and Dix & Eaton Strategic Communications as an inside director. She has also been active in the nonprofit community serving on boards such as the Columbus Museum of Art, the MidOhio Food Bank, and the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio. Deb received a BS in Business Administration and an MBA from Ohio University.