Amy Binder

Founder, CEO and Chairman RF|Binder

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Amy Binder is Founder, CEO, and Chairman of RF|Binder, a New York City-based integrated communications firm with offices in Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. She founded the firm in 2001 after nearly two decades at Ruder Finn, the public relations agency founded by her father, David Finn, where she rose to President of the Americas. RF|Binder works with major global corporations, brands, government organisations, destinations and institutions on corporate reputation and brand marketing, and Binder has spent the last several years expanding it by acquisition, buying the capital markets specialist Peaks Strategies in 2023 and the purpose-driven agency Taft Communications in 2024.

Career Highlights

• Founded RF|Binder in 2001, first as an independently run agency under the Ruder Finn Group before a 2014 restructuring established it as a separate, woman-owned integrated communications agency.
• Acquired Peaks Strategies, an award-winning financial services and capital markets PR firm, in an acquisition announced on 16 October 2023; the combined team was rebranded RFB|Peaks Strategies.
• Acquired Taft Communications, announced 2 December 2024, expanding the firm’s Purpose, Energy & Sustainability and Health & Wellness practices and adding Taft’s ClearPoint leadership training programme.
• Named one of PRNEWS’ 2023 People of the Year in the Agency CEOs category.
• Led RF|Binder to close to 200 industry awards, including Creative Agency of the Year from the Holmes Report and Best Places to Work in NYC from Crain’s.
• RF|Binder named a 2025 Inc. Power Partner Award winner, its third consecutive year, and a Reputation Management honoree on the Observer’s 2025 PR Power List for the second year running.

Professional Journey

Binder began her communications career in the early 1980s at Ruder Finn, the public relations firm founded by her father, David Finn. Working alongside her father and siblings, she rose over nearly two decades to become President of the Americas for the Ruder Finn Group, helping build the company into one of the largest independent public relations agencies in the world. Across that period and since, her client work has spanned food and beverage, financial services, lifestyle, luxury, hospitality and education, with accounts including Bank of America, Capital One, Cargill, Citibank, Dunkin’ Brands, Eli Lilly, The Hershey Company, Johnson & Johnson, McGraw Hill Education and Tupperware Brands.

In 2001 she founded RF|Binder, initially operating as an independently run agency under the Ruder Finn Group umbrella before a 2014 restructuring established it as a fully separate, woman-owned integrated communications agency. She has framed the firm around research-based strategic counsel and a deliberately symbiotic approach across communication channels, and has built out capabilities in content, research and insights, and digital and paid media alongside the core corporate reputation and brand marketing work.

Since 2023 the firm’s growth has come substantially through acquisition. In October 2023 RF|Binder bought Peaks Strategies, a New York financial services and capital markets specialist, folding it into the corporate and financial practice as RFB|Peaks Strategies under executive managing director Armel Leslie. In December 2024 it acquired Taft Communications, adding issue-based campaigns, advocacy and public affairs, alternative energy and clean tech, and new competencies in pharmaceuticals, hospital systems and foundations, together with Taft’s proprietary ClearPoint leadership training programme. As of September 2026 RF|Binder’s own leadership page lists Binder as CEO and Chairman, with Rebecca Binder as President.

Outside the agency, Binder sits on the boards of the Institute for Public Relations and the Council of Public Relations Firms, serves on Brown University’s Media Advisory Committee, and participates in Columbia Business School’s Brand Leaders Forum at the Center on Global Brand Leadership and its Family Business Program Advisory Board, where she has guest lectured in the Family Business MBA programme.

Education

Brown University

A.B. with Honors

Columbia Business School

MBA