Our story

Carl Folta has extensive experience in all facets of public relations, including financial communications, crisis management, litigation support and marketing communications, as well as corporate philanthropy and social responsibility. He has managed the communications process in high-stakes, high profile engagements involving financial communication and reputational challenges, including mergers and acquisitions, transactions, crisis situations, litigation and trial support, executive profile management, corporate governance disputes and investor relations programs.

Carl founded Folta Communications in 2017 following a nearly three-decade career as chief communications strategist and spokesperson for Viacom Inc. (now Paramount Global), where he was responsible for the company’s overall communications activities as well as its philanthropic and corporate social responsibility programs. Also in 2017, Carl joined H/Advisors Abernathy, a leading communications consulting agency based in New York City, serving as a Senior Counselor with the firm, with a focus on client counseling and business development, particularly in the media and entertainment industries.

Paramount Global is a media and content creation company headquartered in New York City. Home to premier international media brands that create television programming, motion pictures and other entertainment content for audiences in 180 countries, Paramount Global’s properties include Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike, BET and Paramount Pictures. Carl was responsible for overall communication activities, both internally and externally, as well as the coordination of worldwide communication of Paramount Global’s diverse television network portfolio and Hollywood-based film studio.

No stranger to complex business challenges and rapid crisis response, his tenure as chief communications officer included responsibility for corporate and financial messaging and all major media relationships during a highly active, multi-decade period of mergers and acquisitions in the media industry.

H/Advisors Abernathy is a leading communications consulting firm with global reach that designs, implements and advises on communications programs to protect its clients’ reputations and advance their strategic initiatives. Carl brings his broad range of skills, and deep knowledge of the media and entertainment business to the firm, adding to its core practice areas that include Corporate Reputation & Positioning, Crisis Management, Cybersecurity and Data Privacy, Investor Relations, Litigation, M&A, and Public Affairs.

Carl joined Viacom in 1993 from Paramount Communications Inc. (formerly Gulf+Western Industries, Inc.), where he held various communications posts of increasing responsibility since 1984. He began his career at Ruder & Finn, a leading independent PR firm, in 1979.

A graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication and a recipient of the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award, Carl taught graduate-level classes in public relations as an Adjunct Professor at New York University.

He is a a Trustee of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and former Chair and current board member of the educational non-profit organizations, Literacy Inc. and Get Schooled. He also serves on the board of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, a social service agency, and on the Advisory Board of the Staying Alive Foundation.