STEVE CODY

Founder + CEO

Steve is the founder and chief executive officer of Peppercomm, a strategic communications agency he named in honor of his late Black Lab, Pepper. He is a comedian, climber and dog lover, but not necessarily in that order.

In his role as CEO, Steve is responsible for driving everything from thought leadership and new service offerings to crisis counseling and workplace culture. The firm has won many workplace culture awards from premier media outlets including Fortune, Inc., The New York Observer and Crain’s New York Business. It has also been named a top workplace by PR Week, PR News, PR Daily and Bulldog Reporter and has garnered countless “best” campaign of the year awards from advertising, digital, workplace and PR trade media.

He has contributed hundreds of guest columns to Inc Magazine, been quoted extensively throughout the business and trade press and authored his own book, “What’s keeping your customers up at night?” (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Steve is also co-authoring another book, to be published by HarperCollins in September 2023, titled, “The ROI of LOL: The Power of Laughter in Business.”

Named one of Northeastern University’s 100 Most Successful Alumni, Steve is a trustee and former chair of the Institute for Public Relations and co-chairs IPR’s ELEVATE Board, whose members include some of the best and brightest rising stars in the PR profession. He also sits on the nominating committee of The Page Society and is a two-time former chair of the PRSA’s Counselor’s Academy. He is a member of the advisory councils of the College of Charleston, the University of Florida and the Diversity Action Alliance. In addition, he led Peppercomm to become one of the six founding members of the Diversity Marketing Consortium, which provides a range of pro bono PR and branding services to minority-owned businesses.

Steve is married with two children and two grandchildren. His passions are ice, rock and mountain climbing as well as performing stand-up comedy (very poorly). In the latter role, he has helped organize comedy charity fundraisers that have distributed more than $100,000 to worthy nonprofits and charities.

A sense of humor means: A person has the resiliency to deal with the realities of the modern world while maintaining his energy, drive, enthusiasm and smile. Life’s far too short. Loosen up.

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