Willard, Chris

Chris Willard is Founder and Strategic Communications Partner at Chris Willard Communications, a San Francisco-based strategic communications firm serving clients at the intersection of culture and technology. 
 
Chris previously drove successful PR strategies for every aspect of HBO’s business, guiding the culture-defining brand through the turbulent streaming revolution, as new technologies and challenger brands disrupted traditional business models and the way we consume entertainment.  
 
For more than 15 years, he has worked with senior executives across product, tech, marketing, research, data science, AI/ML, content strategy and other disciplines to launch new brands and products and evolve legacy brands without diminishing their hard-earned reputations. 
 
At HBO, he launched TV shows, streaming services, VR games and experiences, AR lenses, voice skills, branching narrative tech, live fan experiences, a global concert tour, Super Bowl commercials and hundreds of consumer products that cemented HBO’s status as the go-to brand for curated, prestige television and turned shows like Game of Thrones into global phenomenons. 
 
In 2023, he led the successful PR roll out for the rebranded Max streaming service, working closely with Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming leadership team across the U.S., Latin America, Europe and APAC to set the stage for the new brand and improved product experience. 
 
Chris’s leadership during this period of rapid growth and change was a key influence in evolving a legacy entertainment business into one of the leading streaming players across the globe, giving him a unique perspective into how technology transforms business. 
 
He is excited to build on this experience by working with brands who are charting a vision for the future, brands who are developing unique and exciting ways to evolve their businesses amidst disruption, and, in this new era of automation, brands who are finding the right balance between human and machine to drive innovation, educate and empower workers, and unlock value across their organizations.