Shelby Barnes

Shelby Barnes is senior vice president of corporate communications and marketing for Intellectual Ventures. Since 1999, she has been responsible for designing, implementing and overseeing the company’s global marketing communications and public relations strategies. She is also responsible for the content and distribution strategies for all of IV’s digital properties and social media channels as well as internal and executive communications. Ms. Barnes works closely with the CEO, global business teams, and corporate legal counsel to ensure all communications and corporate marketing activities align with corporate business goals. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, she also works directly with the president and other company leaders to set strategic direction and business priorities for the company. Prior to joining Intellectual Ventures, Ms. Barnes spent more than seven years at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide where she provided strategic counsel on a variety of Microsoft product and corporate PR initiatives. A highlight of Ms. Barnes’ tenure at Waggener Edstrom was her leadership of Microsoft Research communications. In addition to corporate communications and marketing expertise, she has more than 20 years of broad-based media relations experience. She has worked with print, broadcast, and digital media spanning a variety of industries including science and high technology, intellectual property, as well as general business and consumer media. Her clients have been on the covers of the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes and Business Week, to name a few. She has also managed client profiles for many leading business and science outlets including: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, USA Today, Newsweek, Scientific American, Science, Nature, and New Scientist. She has also worked on numerous radio and TV broadcast pieces for outlets such as the CBS Morning News, 20/20, NPR, CNN, Primetime Live, Nightline, the Discovery Channel, TLC and the BBC. Ms. Barnes earned a Master of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington, and she holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. As part of her graduate studies she researched digital media impact on youth in Namibia and spent six weeks there in 2011 working in an advertising agency. She is an active member of the International Association of Business Communicators and Seraph Capital Forum. She is also an advisory board member of the Woods Creek Consulting CMO Roundtable and volunteers with the Rain City Rock Camp for Girls.