Kirsty Graham is the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Public Affairs practice at Edelman and sits on Edelman’s Global Operating Committee. Kirsty brings over 25 years of public affairs experience to Edelman, where she leads a diverse team of over 275 public affairs professionals across Edelman’s global network. Together with her team, Kirsty is focused on helping clients – from companies to governments to NGOs – win in the world in which they operate by navigating change, mapping risk, and communicating to their constituents through policy and public affairs campaigns.
Prior to joining Edelman, Kirsty spent 10 years at Pfizer Inc, where she most recently served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs for their Biopharmaceuticals Group. In that role she oversaw the full scope of Corporate Affairs for Pfizer’s innovative medicines businesses, which operate in more than 125 countries and have a portfolio of more than 600 products generating approximately three-quarters of the company’s revenues. Kirsty was previously SVP, Global Policy and International Affairs at Pfizer. Before joining the business world, Kirsty spent 16 years in the New Zealand Foreign Service working on a wide range of economic, security and trade policy issues with responsibilities spanning bilateral relations with China, Japan and the United States. Her diplomatic assignments included a secondment to support the Foreign Minister, Sir Don McKinnon (1994 to 1996 ), a 5 year posting to Washington DC (1996-2000), a secondment as Deputy Spokesperson at the British Embassy in Washington (2001), and 5 years as New Zealand’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations (2006-2010.)
She holds a BA in English Literature and a postgraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Otago.
