KATE WILHELM
Chief Operating Officer & Senior Vice President
As Chief Operating Officer & Senior Vice President for Ceisler Media & Issue Advocacy, Kate Wilhelm directs business development efforts and leads strategic planning in conjunction with Founder Larry Ceisler.
Kate’s expertise and dedication to success also assists clients with reputation management, community affairs and messaging strategy. She works directly with many of Ceisler Media’s corporate clients, developing and executing integrated communications approaches that advance their issue.
Kate works with some of the Philadelphia region’s important and admired corporations, as well as emerging businesses or those that may not be as well known. For example, Kate assists Comcast Corp on a range of local and national communications efforts. And when Entercom Communications moved its headquarters to Philadelphia in 2019, Kate helped the corporation connect with civic influencers and formalize its social responsibility plans and partnerships.
Kate was promoted to Chief Operating Officer early in 2020, after joining Ceisler Media as Director in 2017. She has helped oversee growth and implement an efficient organizational structure for the firm’s offices in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. And she has focused on increasing the company’s digital media capabilities to position Ceisler Media to create fully integrated, focused campaigns moving forward.
“What I have learned in this business is that it is constantly changing,” said Larry Ceisler. “It is important we have leadership that can foresee and implement the strategies our clients need to compete. Kate’s experience and dedication allow us to look forward to a bright future.”
Kate’s practice has always been to cultivate partnerships with leading local and national businesses. As Senior Vice President of Business Development & External Affairs at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, she built and managed relationships with national and local partners to raise awareness, engage new audiences and provide financial support for the legacy organization that produces the Philadelphia Flower Show. As a consultant, Kate developed strategic plans for clients including the Philadelphia Film Society and the Please Touch Museum.
Her executive career began when Kate served as Executive Director of the Fairmount Park Conservancy. There, she oversaw efforts to increase and diversify financial support for the park system. She managed the completion of an $8.1 million campaign to finish the restoration of the Water Works South Garden and Cliffside; facilitated development of a master plan for Hunting Park in North Philadelphia; and negotiated the reopening of the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center with the City of Philadelphia.
Kate serves on the Board of Directors of MANNA, where she chairs the Communications Committee, in support of the organization’s mission to revolutionize healthcare with nutrition interventions. A native of Atco, New Jersey, she attended Rutgers University, earning a degree in political science. Kate lives in the Packer Park neighborhood of South Philadelphia with her daughter, Elizabeth Chimicles.
In 2008, 2009 and 2010 Kate was an invited participant at the Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia Social Enterprise Annual Conference, a forum providing innovative thinking on strategy execution for leaders of nonprofit organizations. Topics included Translating Strategies into Results (2008), Leading Social Enterprise Organizations During Turbulent Financial Times (2009) and Next Generation Marketing (2010).
Kate participated in Bank of America’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Leadership Program for Emerging Leaders in 2011. The three-day triannual program helps build cross-sector partnerships to advance nonprofit leaders addressing economic mobility and social progress issues in the community.
Kate was a panelist at the Honorable William H. Gindin 21st Annual Bench-Bar Conference in 2019, an event devoted to educating bankruptcy practitioners, judges and professionals.
