Leading PRSA Forward: A Conversation With New CEO Matthew Marcial

Matthew Marcial didn’t expect a high school job at a resort to shape his career. But from the moment he stepped into the hospitality industry, he was drawn to the energy, the people and the art of anticipating needs before they arose.

“It was something I thought would be a fun job while I was in high school and getting ready for college,” Marcial said. “I got bit by the bug and found my love of working with people.”

That passion for connecting with others, first sparked in hospitality, naturally evolved into a career in the association world, where anticipating needs and delivering exceptional service remain just as essential.

On March 3, Marcial, a leader with more than 15 years of experience in trade and professional associations, begins his tenure as PRSA’s CEO.

Marcial has built a career driving growth, innovation and engagement within associations. He brings expertise in strategic development, membership growth and nonprofit leadership.

Most recently, he provided strategic consulting, helping nonprofit clients increase revenue and membership. Marcial previously served as CEO of the National Association of College Auxiliary Services and held executive roles with the Institute of Internal Auditors, Meeting Professionals International, NAFA Fleet Management Association and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

At PRSA, Marcial will oversee all programming, financial and operational aspects of the organization. Reporting to and working closely with PRSA’s Board of Directors, he will guide the implementation of the Strategic Plan and the organization’s advocacy efforts to support its members.

Marcial holds an MBA from Florida International University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Saint Leo University. He is also a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and Certified Meeting Professional (CMP).

He spoke with John Elsasser, PRSA’s publications director, about his leadership style, what drew him to PRSA and how he defines success.

In high school, you started working at a resort, where you continued to advance as you studied for your bachelor’s and then your master’s degrees. When did you realize that a career in hotel and hospitality management was for you?

It was something I thought would be a fun job while I was in high school and getting ready for college. I got bit by the bug and found my love of working with people. Many things that I learned in hospitality translated to the association space, like anticipating guests’ needs. A lot of that is closely tied to how we serve our members, and anticipating our members’ needs.

In the association world, you progressed from vice president to CEO. When did you realize you were ready to pivot from upper management to the CEO level?

I’ve tried to be strategic about my career. Associations opened my eyes to the many different business paths and operational areas. I’ve been lucky to have had the opportunity to touch and lead several of those areas.

When I joined a large global association at the IIA (The Institute of Internal Auditors), I led a large business unit, which prepared me to lead an organization. Now, I’m very excited to be stepping into the PRSA CEO role.

How do you describe your leadership style?

I want to hire and develop people who can do their jobs well and get out of their way so that we can be successful. I want to make sure that they’ve got the resources to be successful.

I’m big on holding the team accountable for our goals — and also on my team holding me accountable for what I say I’m going to do. Being able to articulate the vision of where we’re heading — you can’t communicate those things enough, especially about big changes and big initiatives. Also, having empathy as a leader is important. Those things are key to my leadership style.

What strategies do you use to foster team collaboration and innovation?

I’m a big believer in taking calculated risks. I’m not afraid to encourage the team to try new things, so that we’re experimenting with ideas, as long as we learn from those things and can pivot quickly without causing a lot of damage, to see what works.

I’m also a big believer in professional development. We service our association members so that they can continue growing. It’s important for our teams to do the same thing. Whenever we have a colleague attend a conference or an event, being able to come back and share those takeaways with everyone can be really valuable.

Also, we can learn from outside the industry. We may get some of the best ideas that we may not have seen, which we can then bring back and implement with our own resources.

What was particularly attractive about PRSA to you as the next step in your career?

With PRSA being a 75-year-old organization, the reputation of PRSA is tremendous. Being able to tie in where the organization is going with the new Strategic Plan was exciting.

I see a lot of big initiatives, big projects that are going to be transformative for the organization. That was exciting to me, reading the projects that are in the Strategic Plan and what’s ahead. It’s what got me motivated in this role.

How do your strengths in association management align with PRSA’s mission and goals?

I was drawn to PRSA’s professional values and the Code of Ethics. I’ve led a lot of major projects and initiatives that are similar to what PRSA is heading toward. I think a lot of those learnings that I’ve seen, of what’s worked and what hasn’t worked in similar-sized organizations, are going to be helpful.

How do you define success for PRSA in the coming year?

Being able to move the needle on broadening PRSA’s reach, looking at, “How are we capturing more broad-based marketing professionals to what we’re doing, and also business professionals?”

We’re the leaders in business communications and communications around the globe. We’ve got all the expertise. So how can we leverage that to train folks who may not be in the communications space, but need what our members offer? Those are opportunities for us.

More specifically, I want to develop KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure our membership growth, member engagement, and nonmember engagement and see how we’re making progress.

On the financial side, it’s important that we’re sustainable into the future. So, looking at our expenses, our revenue, to help us grow as an organization well into the future.

What excites you most about serving as CEO for PRSA and working with our Board of Directors?

I’m excited to meet all of our stakeholders. I want to talk to everybody — our volunteer leaders, members, staff and partners — to really understand the challenges that keep everyone up at night.

Everybody’s got different perspectives. At associations, it’s easy to make assumptions about what everybody needs, but there are so many different segments of our membership, and everybody has different needs. Once we understand those things, it will help us create more robust strategies to develop tools and education for our members.

I’m excited about listening and hearing what we’re doing well, what we need to continue doing and what we need to change to help us grow.

Watch the full conversation with Matthew Marcial here:

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