Carey Kirkpatrick is a veteran communications specialist. Following marketing and PR roles with the Rochester Philharmonic, New World Symphony, and Houston Symphony, Carey joined Texas-based media startup CultureMap.com as director of marketing, seeing the site through state-wide market launches. In 2014, Carey founded CKP, and has grown CKP into an award-winning, multi-state PR agency.

Under Carey’s leadership, CKP has received peer recognition regionally and nationally and is the recipient of more than 100 awards and honors by AMA Houston, PRSA Houston, PRSA Dallas and Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals. CKP is a two-time Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in Texas honoree, a Houston Business Journal Best Places to Work honoree, a two-time Inc. Best Workplaces in the U.S. honoree, and four-time winner of PRSA Houston’s Agency of the Year.

Carey has a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and a Master of Music from the University of Texas at Austin. Carey is a Houston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree and a BizWomen.com Headliner in Marketing & Communications. She is a frequent speaker on topics like remote working, virtual collaboration, team building and communications trends and is an Adjunct Instructor of Arts Leadership at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. In addition to serving many years as a Board member and Co-Chair of the Marketing and Membership Committee of Hermann Park Conservancy, Carey serves as a Governing Director on the Board of Trustees of the Houston Symphony Society and as vice-chair of the Marketing Committee.