With nearly 20 years of experience, I have looked back on my career I’ve thought about the things I would do differently– If I had only known, what I know now. I think this is a good opportunity to give back to the next generation of Cougs. – Rich Johnson ‘99
Rich is the Senior Public Affairs Manager at San Antonio, TX based USAA. As a member of Corporate Communication’s Issues and Crisis team he manages strategic communications for the Government & Industry Relations and Enterprise Litigation departments. Acting as a strategic adviser and planning and managing all external and internal communications and reputation management.
Prior to joining the Issues Team, he supported USAA’s Property & Casualty Company (P&C) and was part of the Catastrophe (CAT) Communications Team, managing media and public relations during CATs. He also assisted with enterprise crisis communications and managed the innovation and technology communications for P&C. Prior to supporting P&C, Rich managed communications for HR and Corporate Services, including benefits communications, health and wellness efforts, the Eat Right campaign and construction, environmental and security initiatives.
Rich has nearly 20 years of experience in communications and marketing, with an emphasis on public affairs & media relations. Prior to USAA Rich was the Public Relations Manager for the City of San Antonio’s Aviation Department where he acted as the primary spokesperson for San Antonio International Airport and Stinson Municipal Airport. Rich oversaw the planning, development and execution of all proactive and reactive public relations campaigns.
Prior to the City of San Antonio Rich was with McCann Erickson, where he managed the advertising and marketing efforts for the Army’s ROTC programs on over 40 different college campuses. He managed marketing and communications efforts to build a major motorsport facility (NASCAR) in the Seattle area as consultant with International Speedway Corp.
He spent several years in public relations with a Seattle based hotel and conference center management and consulting firm and a boutique marketing agency, specializing in high tech and wireless clients.
Rich is a native of the Seattle area and relocated to San Antonio in 2008. He earned his BA from Washington State University in Pullman, WA (GO COUGS!) and is FEMA trained in Emergency Management, Incident Command Structure and Crisis Communications.
In his spare time, Rich enjoys golfing, traveling, cooking, trying different foods and spending time with his wife Tory and their two kids, Ryer and Tessa.