Grace Leong is CEO of Hunter, an integrated marketing communications agency with a storied history of female leadership. Her drive, talent and enthusiasm for her work has enabled her to go from intern to employee to account executive to partner to CEO.
The University of Delaware has played a pivotal role in Leong's career. As an undergraduate at UD, Leong won the Hal Kierce Award as the year's top public relations student. D-A-Y/Ogilvy Public Relations executive Barbara W. Hunter created the award to honor a deceased co-worker. When Leong graduated, she joined Hunter at D-A-Y/Ogilvy in New York City. A year later, when Hunter founded her own agency, Leong followed her to the new Hunter Public Relations.
Leong was the first employee of Hunter Public Relations and was instrumental in building the agency into the industry leader that it is today. When Hunter retired in 2000, Leong bought the firm. In 2019, Hunter Public Relations Agency was rebranded to simply HUNTER to better reflect the comprehensive services and total solution approach it brings to its clients.
Under Leong's leadership, HUNTER has flourished. It provides marketing communications services to well-known consumer products companies and brands, with past and current clients that include Kraft Foods, Mondelēz, McNeil Consumer Health Care, Diageo, Amazon, Hasbro, Red Bull and 3M.
Leong has dedicated herself to paying it forward to her beloved alma mater. Kami Silk, the Rosenberg Professor and chair of UD's Department of Communication noted, “Grace shares her expertise broadly and deeply in her profession. Our students have benefitted from her commitment to continually show up for them as a mentor, internship provider, and speaker."
For Hunter PR's 25th anniversary in 2014, Leong created the Barbara W. Hunter Internship to provide a selected UD intern with a cash stipend to help offset the cost of living in New York City while interning for Hunter. She also regularly hosts UD PR students at the firm as part of UD Career Treks. She has served on the CAS Dean's Advisory Council and the Horn Advisory Board.
