Image of Lesley Sillaman
Jury

Lesley Sillaman
EVP
Red Havas

PITTSBURGH, USA // Lesley is an executive vice president with Red Havas, leading the agency’s Pittsburgh office and working as a key member of the company’s Global Collective, helping to coordinate the agency’s cross-border work with Havas teams around the world. Sillaman joined Havas PR in 2006, and since then has been immersed as strategist, content and speech writer, media relations specialist and trainer. Lesley has been recognized in the industry for her expertise in crisis and corporate communication and regularly trains clients and teams on crisis communication. She has been recognized in the industry with several awards and accolades, including the 2016 PR News PR People Awards as Agency PR Professional of the Year and in 2018, as a member of the Cannes Lions Grand Jury in the PR category and as Jury President for the 2020 Lisbon PR Awards. In 2021, Lesley was a judge for the Platinum PR Awards and in 2022, Lesley was a juror for CreativePool’s “The Annual” awards and was recognized as the 2022 Renaissance Hall of Fame Inductee for PRSA’s Pittsburgh chapter.

Lesley works on several of the agency’s long-standing and high-profile clients, including Transitions Optical, IPEMA and UNICEF. She has supported global work for Sodexo and Kellogg’s and for a number of additional consumer, corporate and B2B clients over the years.

Prior to joining Havas, Lesley worked for a decade in U.S. government and politics, serving in press secretary and national communications roles for several elected officials, for a national political party and in battleground states during two presidential races. She received her bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, and her master’s degree in communications from the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA.