From agency leader to in-house PR executive, Melissa Murphy’s career highlights the importance of relationships
Lowe Group wrapped up our 2025 team retreat a few days ago and, as in past years, we got to spend time together learning, planning, connecting and having fun. One of the favorite features of our retreat is a fireside chat with a financial PR, media, or marketing professional. This year, we asked Melissa Murphy, Head of PR for Allspring Global Investments, the $629 billion asset manager based in North Carolina, to share some insights from her career. Prior to joining Allspring in 2022, Melissa spent 21 years at a financial PR agency. The following is a summary of our conversation.
PR Professional Profile:
Melissa Murphy
Head of PR
Allspring Global
Early career
As a Midwesterner who majored in marketing at the University of Nebraska, Melissa didn’t expect to end up in PR. But when she landed her first job in a training program at an asset manager, she got her first taste of what would be her career focus. Melissa initially thought she’d land in channel marketing or advertising, but she quickly realized the marketing people spent most of their time creating prospectuses and other collateral on one floor while the PR team was on a different floor with the decision makers. She wanted to be with the decision makers.
“No one goes to kindergarten and says, I want to grow up to work in financial PR. It is a niche not many know about that requires thinking and relationships and creative ideas. It can’t be outsourced. Over the course of my career, PR has remained essential.”
Other elements of that first job were formative. Her training program was structured to give her crucial experience talking with customers. She also had to study for her Series 6, 63 and 7 licenses. “Learning is a constant in this industry, and you always have to be open to it. I’ve taken that lesson with me throughout my career.”
Melissa also attributes some of her discipline to her intensive experience as a dancer when she was growing up. “With dance, there is a level of precision that is required for success. You bring these human experiences with you to other parts of your life and your career.”
Agency life
Melissa spent more than 20 years with SunStar Strategic in various roles, culminating as executive VP. That role gave her experience working with a variety of clients and watching the evolution of the industry. She also learned what a true partnership looks like and what it takes to deepen media relationships. She worked with large and small clients but particularly appreciated her work with one huge financial firm where she orchestrated large-scale press events at which 80+journalists would show up. The backbone of her agency work, however, was boutique asset management firms where she built longstanding partnerships.
“Every client deserves a team and at least one person who is seasoned. It takes a minimum of six months to get to know your client, but probably more like a year.”
In hindsight, she might not have stayed in the agency world as long as she did. “If I could do it differently, I might have moved on sooner, but I continued to learn something new with every client, every media training, every messaging exercise.”
When asked what she thinks makes a good pitch, Melissa said,
“Obviously it is what the reporter needs most. It is news driven. But it still takes someone to pitch it, and it is best if the reporter gets an email from someone they know. Also, be reliable and reachable. Reporters need to know they can reach out and get a source quickly if needed.”
Deciding to go in-house
While Melissa had been thinking about her next career steps, the opportunity to join Allspring Global in 2022 surfaced through a strong network. Allspring had recently become an independent firm after Wells Fargo decided to spin out its asset management business, and the leadership at Allspring realized the PR role was essential.
“While we used to say Allspring was a start-up at scale, it was really a start-up in our department.” Out of the gate, Melissa had to set up and establish the entire PR infrastructure to be able to support the company’s nearly 400 investment professionals around the globe.
In addition to managing in-house PR and Allspring’s agencies, including Lowe Group, she is very engaged in executing the firm’s PR strategy. She maintains deep relationships with many reporters. “Most people in my role don’t contact journalists, but I’m both a player and a coach.”
Since joining the firm, Melissa is most proud of three things. In addition to creating the PR operations at Allspring from a blank canvass, it was a pinnacle of her career to help execute Allspring’s CEO announcement in 2025. Melissa helped conceive and carry out the plan with a number of the pieces falling into place, including a feature on new CEO Kate Burke in Pensions & Investments and a Bloomberg TV interview, among other results. “It was one of those moments when a plan you conceived and brought to life went really well.”
She is also proud of the role she has played supporting the broader bench of talent. “We have pivoted to the mindset of how to amplify our team and investment strategy. Who is the emerging talent? Where is the opportunity?”
Looking ahead with the emergence of AI, she noted, “Relationships and people will always be important to PR.” She also sees more opportunity to do cross-marketing collaboration, pointing to recent Cerulli data. “The data shows reputation is the second-most important reason an advisor chooses an asset manager. PR matters!”
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