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Past Chair
Renee White Fraser, Ph.D.
President/CEO, Fraser Communications
Renee Fraser is more than an outstanding leader in the Los Angeles business
community and a star in the world of advertising. She is also a dedicated advocate
and mentor for women business owners. With the same tenacity that has driven
her to build the largest woman-owned ad agency in Southern California, she has
committed much of her business and volunteer life to a wide array of non-profit
organizations and innovative outreach programs.
Over the years, Renee has worked diligently as a role model and an advocate
for women in business. Currently, she is President of NAWBO (The National Association
of Women Business Owners) Enterprise Institute as well as a past President and
Chair of NAWBO Los Angeles. She is current Chair of the Health Care Committee
of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and previously served as a member of
the Board of Directors of the Western States Advertising Agency Association,
and President of the Los Angeles Advertising Women.
In addition, she serves on the Women’s Leadership Board of the Harvard
University/JFK School of Government, and is Los Angeles Chair of MassMutual
Women’s Advisory Board. She is also a member of the Women’s Leadership
Exchange Advisory Board. Renee is the recipient of the Los Angeles Division
of the Small Business Administration’s “Women in Business Advocate
of the Year” Award, and the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2004
“Business Owner/CEO of the Year” Award.
As an advocate for women business owners, Renee has presented at the UCLA Forecast
and KCET’s California Gold program. She has been interviewed by the ABC
Evening News with Peter Jennings, USA Today, Los Angeles Business Journal, Los
Angeles Times, Women’s Wear Daily, KCET television, American Airlines’
Sky Radio, KFWB, KNX, and other leading media outlets. Renee is also a contributor
to the Loyola Law Review.
Honored by Advertising Age magazine as one of the “Ten brightest women
in advertising,” Renee is an advertising psychologist. As a researcher,
Renee has developed insights into consumer psychology that has led to strategic
plans and award-winning advertising campaigns. Most recently, Fraser Communications
received the prestigious 2005 gold ADDY award for best radio campaign in Los
Angeles.
In 1992 Renee founded her full-service advertising agency (now the 25th largest
independent ad agency in Los Angeles). The agency’s prestigious client
list includes: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Toyota, United Way, Avery Dennison,
East West Bank, Metropolitan Water District, and UCLA Extension. Prior to launching
her firm, Renee was President & General Manager of Bozell, Inc./Pacific
Region, the 14th largest national ad agency. Before that, she was Senior VP,
Director of Strategic Planning at Young & Rubicam and Y&R Dentsu.
As her career has developed, so has Renee’s commitment to giving back
to the community. When she started her own business, Renee was determined to
use her marketing and advertising skills in ways that helped to improve people’s
lives focusing on programs that help women and minorities. She has devoted much
of her time to volunteer work on boards such as Volunteers of America, where
she currently serves as a board member and spent 1998-2001 as Chair of the Board.
Renee also serves on the board of the Youth Mentoring Connection, which is dedicated
to improving the lives of “at-risk youth” through mentoring relationships
with caring adults.
In addition, Renee is a founder of MAT – the Minority Advertising Training
program. This innovative advertising industry internship program was the first
of its kind and was launched in 1990. Over 1500 young people have now “graduated”
from the program and more than 700 have jobs in the industry today.
Renee has also strategically grown nearly one third of her client base at Fraser
Communications in the non-profit arena, working with their boards to develop
strategically-focused brands in order to reach current and prospective donors
with more compelling messages. Fraser Communications’ approach has greatly
helped Orthopaedic Hospital, Johnson Cancer Center, and the United Way of Sacramento,
Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Renee received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Southern California.
She is an adjunct professor in the graduate program at the Annenberg School
of Communications at USC. She has also raised and mentored two daughters, one
at UC Berkeley and the other who is currently at Harvard Law School.
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