ONE Campaign puts Phoenix Ricks over PR, digital and partnerships
The notable part of Phoenix Ricks' appointment is the remit: ONE is putting media relations, digital, creative, partnerships and events under one CCO.
The ONE Campaign has named Phoenix Ricks chief communications officer, giving her a remit that runs well beyond conventional media relations. The organization announced the appointment on September 18, with Ricks taking the role on September 21 and overseeing media and public relations, digital communications, creative, strategic partnerships and events.
That breadth is the more useful signal in the appointment. ONE is not presenting communications as a press-office function sitting beside advocacy, but as an operating layer connecting public affairs, digital distribution, creative work and external partnerships. For communications leaders, the question is less whether the title changes and more whether those functions now share clearer decision rights and a common narrative.
Key Takeaways
- Phoenix Ricks takes over a CCO remit that includes PR, digital communications, creative, strategic partnerships and events.
- The appointment brings several communications and advocacy functions under one senior leader rather than treating media relations as a standalone discipline.
- Communications teams using a similar model should define decision rights and escalation paths before expanding one leader's remit across channels.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- What changes under the new CCO role
- Why Phoenix Ricks fits the remit
- What communications teams should watch
What changes under the new CCO role
The appointment puts several functions that can easily drift into separate workflows under a single executive. Media relations can move on a different timetable from digital publishing, while creative, partnerships and events often involve their own approval chains. ONE's structure makes the CCO responsible for coordinating those disciplines around an advocacy agenda rather than simply managing press coverage.
ONE president and CEO Mark Green said, “Communications is at the heart of effective advocacy,” while describing Ricks' mix of global perspective, strategy and communications experience as important to the organization. The wording is notable because it places communications inside the advocacy model itself, not after policy and campaign decisions have already been made.
That does not make the appointment an industry-wide shift. It does, however, reflect a practical form of in-house communications consolidation: one senior leader owns more of the surfaces through which an organization explains its priorities, activates supporters and manages external relationships. The value will depend on whether the broader remit reduces handoffs or simply adds more functions to the same reporting line.
Why Phoenix Ricks fits the remit
Ricks most recently founded Girl Friday, a Washington-based global affairs firm focused on geopolitical risk, communications and advocacy strategy. Before that, she held public affairs and government relations roles at SHEIN in the US and PepsiCo across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. That background is relevant to ONE because its work sits at the intersection of advocacy, political engagement and public communication rather than within a single consumer or corporate channel.
ONE describes its own model as combining data, grassroots activism, political engagement and strategic partnerships to influence decision-makers. A CCO in that environment therefore has to connect policy substance with public narrative, campaign distribution and partner activity. Ricks' mix of corporate public affairs and geopolitical advisory work is a closer fit for that job than a profile built only around traditional media relations.
The appointment also gives ONE a communications leader whose recent work has involved organizations operating across markets with different political and reputational pressures. That matters for a global advocacy group, where a message that works in Washington may need different framing, spokespeople or partnership choices in other capitals.
What communications teams should watch
Decision rights matter most. When PR, digital, creative, partnerships and events report into one leader, teams should document who can approve a message, who can change it for a channel and which issues require executive escalation. The trigger is any campaign or policy moment involving more than one of those functions, because broader ownership only helps if it removes conflicting approval paths.
Coordination should be measured by handoffs, not by org-chart breadth. A combined remit is useful when a press announcement, social rollout, partner activation and event can move from one narrative and one decision process. If each function still runs separate calendars and separate approvals, the CCO title becomes broader without making the communications operation more coherent.
External partners should expect a wider brief. Agencies and specialist vendors working with organizations structured this way may be asked to solve problems that cross earned media, public affairs, digital content and partnerships. Before taking on that work, the practical question is who owns the integrated brief internally and whether outside partners are being hired to execute a coordinated strategy or to compensate for coordination that has not yet happened.
