Nanci Ryder, founding partner of B|W|R Public Relations, will receive the President’s Award at the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG, IATSE Local 600) 54th Annual Publicists Awards Luncheon to be held at the Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2017.
In announcing the award, the Guild’s national president Steven Poster, ASC said, “Nanci is my definition of a hero. In the midst of a remarkable career representing some of Hollywood’s top stars, she learns that she has ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. But instead of feeling sorry for herself she has led efforts and raised money to help others suffering from this debilitating sickness.”
For more than three decades Ryder earned a reputation as one of the entertainment industry’s most influential publicists, with an ability to recognize and cultivate emerging talent. Ryder provided public relations counsel for such clients as Renée Zellweger, Michael J. Fox, Reese Witherspoon and Leonardo DiCaprio, and during the formative years of such rising stars as Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker and scores of other top Hollywood talent. She mentored many of the mainstays in talent public relations, some of whom have since established impressive practices of their own. At the time of B|W|R’s sale to WPP in October 1999, she had helped build B|W|R into one of the largest, independently owned entertainment public relations firms.
Apart from her professional leadership, Ryder became an outspoken advocate of breast cancer support following her own diagnosis in 2000, serving as a tireless campaigner for fundraising and research. She beat cancer in a year, but would apply the same fierce determination to another life-threatening disease when she was diagnosed with bulbar onset ALS in 2014. She has thus lost the ability to talk and walk, but her fight for a cure remains unchanged. Since 2014, Ryder has led “Team Nanci,” comprised of industry peers, friends and colleagues, raising more than $433,000 for the ALS Association and its Golden West Chapter. The organization honored her efforts in 2016 by presenting her with a Heroes Award, one of many distinctions she has received throughout her career for her charitable efforts.
