Sheri Benjamin

Saratoga, CA

My business experience

In 1988 I founded Benjamin Group, Inc., a boutique West Coast technology public relations firm that I later sold to communications holding company, Interpublic Group. Benjamin Group was the leading agency in both Silicon Valley and Orange County for many years, with additional offices in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.

During the course of my career, I created and implemented communications and marketing programs for both emerging and Fortune 500 organizations, and was frequently called in to spearhead strategic CEO engagements and key messaging/ positioning assignments. I led large-scale repositioning programs for such companies as General Electric and Hewlett-Packard, guerrilla marketing programs for niche service and product companies, and crisis work for companies embroiled in multi-billion dollar lawsuits and product recalls.

My Vistage experience

As a Vistage CEO member for 14 years, I can personally testify to the value of Vistage membership in a chief executive’s personal and professional life. I went from being a 70-hour-a-week CEO of a fledgling, barely profitable company to heading a high-growth and highly profitable business (at a healthy 45 hours a week) that I eventually sold to a strategic global conglomerate. The fairy tale exit strategy sometimes comes true!

I am in the third year as Chair of a Vistage Chief Executive group and a Key Executive group. I started a new Vistage Small Business group in the Fall of 2008.

My Vistage groups

My Vistage Chief Executive group is a high-performing, high-accountability, high-nurturing but no-nonsense group of business founders/owners. This includes heads of manufacturing, dealerships, construction, service, legal and high-tech firms. One quarter are women.

The group members describe themselves as “kick ass.” Anyone who can’t say those words out loud (or who at least think of himself/herself as that way) probably isn’t right for the group.

Who is the “ideal” Vistage member?

Those who want to kick ass in their own, unique way, and who are doing so now, but want to do even more going forward. Those who get the fact that even though they’re a CEO, they don’t know it all. Those who know that they could become even better CEOs if they had a trusted third-party team that held them accountable for what they themselves say is most important, and who are willing to go through the minor pain of getting accountable again. Those who can give as much as they get from the team.

More about Sheri Benjamin

I’m motivated by getting businesses to think and actually be outside the box; using leading key performance indicators to assess and run your business; building a unique, real and sustainable culture to help skyrocket your business; and having a life while you’re doing all of the above.

For four consecutive years, Working Mother magazine named the Benjamin Group to its prestigious “100 Best Companies in America” list, and PR Week has named me on the “The 50 Most Powerful Women in PR” list.

People often describe me as a person who isn’t shy to speak her mind. If you ask me for an opinion, I’ll tell you what I think. I can be pithy, a bit irreverent, and am almost always fun. At the same time, I know when to “put the pedal to the metal.” I can be extremely analytical and love a good metric—if it’s truly the one. Business is serious, but should never be grim.

I am a past president and board member emeritus of the San Francisco/Bay Area’s famous Churchill Club. I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism and an advanced degree in the school of hard knocks.