St. Paul's Goff Public getting new CEO

Goff Public, a St. Paul communications and public affairs firm, traces its roots back to the "Mad Men" era, but the business is far different now.

And lessons learned during the pandemic are now accelerating its expansion into the digital space, said Jennifer Hellman, who takes over Jan. 1 as president and CEO.

Hellman will take over for Chris Georgacas, who will continue as board chair, focusing full time on public affairs and leading the firm's practice serving tribal government and organizations.

When the pandemic put on hold in-person gatherings on public projects, Goff, like other companies, switched to online meetings, incorporating digital tools including interactive maps to display plans and receive community input, Hellman said.

"We had more public engagement with this virtual experience than we've ever had before," Hellman said.

Goff now is hiring for the new position of director of digital strategy, "because so much is about online measurements and ways of reaching people through digital means," Hellman said. "That's something that we're upping our game in over the coming year."

Hellman has been at Goff for more than two decades and currently serves as chief operating officer. Chief Financial Officer Heidi Larson will add COO duties in 2022.

A: We are dealing with a public that is more divided than ever. We're kind of dealing with two separate Americas right now and figuring out how do you communicate through that? People are tweeting instantly, and a company might find itself inundated with thousands of angry messages on social media, and that can all happen in minutes. People used to get their news from a core set of news sources. There are so many options, and companies and organizations now have to figure out how to get to them.

Q: How is Goff responding to those challenges?

A: Goff Public has been doing business in this industry for 55 years, and has been innovating that entire time. The firm was founded in the "Mad Men" era by Bob Goff and Nick Coleman, former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's dad. It was formed as an advertising agency, and they quickly determined that clients were looking for ways to get in the paper that were less expensive than placing ads, so they evolved into a public relations firm. Our whole culture is based on creativity, evolution, changing with what our clients need and with what the industry is demanding.

Q: How is Goff addressing diversity, equity and inclusion?

A: Goff gives in the form of sponsorship donations, pro bono work and direct community involvement, more than 5% of our revenue every year to causes. We put out a call last summer for organizations that were doing work to advance racial equity and offered pro bono assistance. We selected a number of organizations and worked with them throughout the year to support their efforts. The team loved being involved in that and we were proud of the work that we did, so we are doing the same thing this year and have just gone through the process of reviewing applications.