BiographySuzanne Bates is a former award-winning television news anchor and reporter who helps business executives and professionals tune their voices of leadership. She is the author of Speak like a CEO: Secrets to Commanding Attention and Getting Results (McGraw Hill 2005), which became a Best Seller on amazon.com in November 2005. Suzanne’s firm, Bates Communications, provides communications strategies, workshops, training, facilitation and executive coaching in communication skills.
For 20 years, Suzanne was an acclaimed interviewer and top-rated news anchor with major market television stations WBZ-TV Boston, WCAU-TV Philadelphia and WFLA-TV Tampa-St. Petersburg. She won an AP News Award and was nominated for a Columbia DuPont Award, and over her career, interviewed thousands of political leaders, CEOs, experts, authors and celebrities.
As President and CEO of Bates Communications, Inc., Suzanne leads a firm whose mission is to help clients win business and project their unique, authentic leadership style through better communication skills. The firm specializes in coaching for public speaking, business presentations, media interviews, networking, job interviews, writing and conversation. The company has published two nationwide surveys, “Credibility, a New Era in Business” in 2002, and “How Does Your Boss Communicate?” in 2004.
Suzanne has been a member of the Leadership Council at Harvard University’s Center for Business and Government. She is past-president of the Mass Women’s Political Caucus, a multi-partisan organization. She is also a member of The Boston Club, a group of senior executive women. Suzanne belongs to the CEO Club of Boston College, and is a member of the National Speakers Association.
Suzanne has a B.S. in Radio-TV Journalism from the University of Illinois, and has taught seminars at Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. She has also given workshops at Boston University, and The Carroll School of Business at Boston College, and at the Boston Learning Society.
Suzanne frequently provides media commentary and writes for business publications, newspapers and magazines. She is an occasional host for WBUR – Boston’s National Public Radio station. She is a dynamic keynote speaker, facilitator and workshop leader who shares secrets for developing the voice of leadership.
Suzanne is a frequent moderator and emcee for corporate and non-profit events including the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. She is a 2002 winner of the Woman of Achievement award from the Boston Business and Professional Women’s Association, 2003 winner as a Woman of Distinction from the MS Society of New England and a 2005 winner of The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Champion Award – awarded to volunteers for their service to the organization.
Suzanne lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with her husband and daughter.