Ron Antonette is the chief program officer of the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations, and also runs a PR practice serving national, regional and municipal clients. He has worked in the public relations industry in Los Angeles for 30 years, including with food and beverage, retail and franchise brands, launching consumer tech products, managing special events, and counseling government organizations.

Antonette worked at Golin for over 14 years, where he was senior executive on the agency’s Mattel and Nestlé accounts, and directed many of the firm’s programs for Disney, including the launch of the Go Network, and the Poohfest and Mickey’s Hometown Parade campaigns. He helped to raise the profiles of clients Cold Stone Creamery, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, and Playmates (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), among others, and led projects for Amazon.com and Toyota/Scion. His account teams helped open The Venetian in Las Vegas, Disney’s California Adventure, Disneyland’s reimagined Tomorrowland, Cold Stone Creamery’s Times Square location, and many retail outlets.

At FleishmanHillard, he co-led its national consumer marketing practice and contributed to national work for Safeway, Magellan GPS and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Antonette also worked in-house for a year each at Mattel as director of brand public relations for its Boys division, including Hot Wheels and electronics, and ConAgra Foods supporting its shelf-stable food brands (Chef Boyardee, Hunt’s) and handling crisis communications.

Antonette was a USC Trustee Scholar and is a graduate of the public relations program, with an emphasis in sports information. He met his wife, Cynthia, while they both worked at campus radio station KSCR (now KXSC).