Steven Cody
co-founder and managing partner of Peppercom

As managing partner and co-founder of Peppercom, Steve is responsible for overall agency direction and management, new business development, new product development and agency marketing. Since founding the agency in 1995, he has been instrumental in Peppercom's rise from a two-person start-up to its current position as one of the nation's best known mid-sized strategic communications firms. Along with strategic consultant Dr. Richard Harte, Steve has written a book on Pain-based Selling, “What’s Keeping Your Customers Up at Night?” published by McGraw-Hill. He was also one of the CEOs featured in Donald Trump’s recent book “Trump: The Way to the Top.”

Over the past 12 years, he has directed Peppercom’s rapid evolution into one of the country's hottest mid-sized agencies. In naming Steve an Agency All-Star, Inside PR said of him, "Cody has pioneered the concept of partnering, developing programs for clients that not only create breakthrough publicity but bottom-line revenue as well." More recently, Steve has spearheaded the development of Peppercom's Pain-based Selling service offering, which connects clients to their customers in totally new ways.

Steve has been named a finalist for Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year" and is a frequent guest lecturer at the Association of Management Consulting Firms, the American Marketing Association, the PRSA Counselors Academy, Ragan Communication Seminars and other leading industry events. Steve has appeared on CNBC and APRadio, and has been featured/profiled in publications ranging from Investor’s Business Daily and The Asbury Park Press to BtoB Marketing and PR Week. He is a member of the PRSA Counselors Academy’s executive committee, a member of the Corporate Communication Advisory Board of Barush College, a member of the College of Charleston’s Advisory Council and the Arthur W. Page Society.

Prior to founding Peppercom, Steve was president of Brouillard Communications, a division of J. Walter Thompson. Before that, he had been executive vice president and general manager of Earle Palmer Brown. Steve is a tennis enthusiast, recreational runner voracious reader of non-fiction, biographies and historical novels, rang in ’08 by climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and has been trained by Stephen Rosenfield at the American Comedy Institute, has studied acting and improvisational theatre at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and regularly performs stand-up comedy and improv. He and his wife, Angie, have two children, Christopher and Catharine. The agency is named after the family dog, Pepper.

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