Biography
Principal: sarah temple, MBA
With 30 years of marketing communications and PR experience, Sarah has worked with North American and global organizations tackling public health, corporate responsibility and reputational challenges. She brings a cross-sector, multi-disciplinary perspective shaped by time spent in and around agencies, nonprofits, companies and universities.
Now principal of her own firm, she works with clients seeking to create positive social change, including organizational strategy, campaign creation and community engagement assignments within Indigenous governance, public health and education. A believer in the transformative power of partnerships to drive change, Sarah counsels government, nonprofit and corporate clients on partnership strategy with a focus on mission alignment, shared ownership and measurable results.
She started her career in Vancouver PR agencies and then moved to Washington D.C. where she was a Senior Vice President at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for more than a decade. After two years in Seattle as Vice-President, External Relations for a global health innovation nonprofit, she returned to Vancouver as Simon Fraser University’s first Executive Director of Communications & Marketing.
While working in the U.S., her Ogilvy team earned acclaim for several public health and social marketing programs, in particular The Heart Truth® which introduced the Red Dress as an iconic symbol for women’s heart health and contributed to greater awareness, behavior change and lower death rates. In 2011, The Heart Truth® was named one of the top 10 campaigns of the decade by The Holmes Report — and in 2018 was designated by PR Week as a top campaign of the past 20 years.
Sarah’s personal and team accomplishments have earned Silver Anvil, Gold Sabre, PRSA and IABC industry awards and the 2009 Woman of the Year award from Washington DC Women in Public Relations. She’s co-author of a special issue of Social Marketing Quarterly, textbook chapters and articles on social marketing and partnership strategy. Sarah holds an MBA in Indigenous Business and Leadership from SFU, a certificate in Indigenous Governance from the University of Arizona, and a certificate in Creating Shared Value from Harvard Business School Executive Education.
Contact: sarah@templegroupstrategy.com
“Forget about creating a brand for yourself. Instead focus on being a good person, doing good work, and showing up on time. The brand will follow.”