crisis-communications
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Gina F. Rubel and the business of saying no
She trained to argue a case, then built a communications agency. For Gina F. Rubel, the work now begins with deciding which promises are worth making.
Gina F. Rubel and the business of saying no
She trained to argue a case, then built a communications agency. For Gina F. Rubel, the work now begins with deciding which promises are worth making.
Jimmy Asci and the Trouble With a Good Story
Before co-founding Scale, Jimmy Asci explained music rights, advised embattled executives and led communications at WeWork during its aborted IPO. His career traces what happens when a carefully prepared story meets an audience with questions.
Kristin Cowart Pierce and the Questions That Followed Her Home
She built BRAVE Public Relations to help brands tell their stories. Then her children asked where she went all day - and the answer became a book.
Peter V. Stanton and the Advantage of Listening
He built a public relations firm in 1989 and a career spanning papal visits and a shuttle launch. Decades later, Peter V. Stanton keeps returning to a quieter question: who has actually been heard?
John P. Lonsdorf and the art of staying in the story
A former English teacher built R&J through four decades of changing media. His career turns on a quieter skill: knowing which part of a story deserves attention.
Heather Hoopes-Matthews Knows What Silence Sounds Like
She spent years asking the uncomfortable questions. After co-founding NP Strategy, Heather Hoopes-Matthews built a career helping people answer them - and learned to keep an eye on her own eyebrows.
Karla Jo Helms and the trouble with being believed
She learned public relations where the stakes were immediate and the clock was unforgiving. Now the founder of JOTO PR Disruptors is asking a quieter question: what makes a good business credible before it needs a rescue?
Kathy Tunheim and the art of changing the view
She left engineering for politics, then left Honeywell with four colleagues to build a communications firm. Kathy Tunheim has spent the years since asking leaders to look again - and take responsibility for being understood.
Chuck Winner and the trouble with winning
Charles “Chuck” Winner helped clients win public arguments, then questioned the machinery that made those victories possible. His life ran from Kennedy’s campaign trail to corporate boardrooms and the California racetrack.
Sean Cassidy and the Art of Staying Newsworthy
He joined DKC as an account executive in 1992. More than three decades later, Sean Cassidy is still there - asking what makes a story worth telling, and changing the business built around the answer.
Amber Roberts knows the story starts before the headline
At Vested, Amber Roberts has built a career around the moments a press release cannot settle. Her work follows the people, decisions and preparation behind financial reputations.
Guy Chipparoni and the business of an invitation
From Hyatt and Jim Edgar’s press office to a Vatican audience, Guy “Chip” Chipparoni has spent his career where private interests meet public decisions. As Choose Chicago’s board chair, he is helping turn the city’s welcome into a funded plan.
Amy Power and the art of getting out of the way
She built a Dallas PR agency around the life she wanted to live. Then Amy Power had to learn how to let other people help run it.
James Madlom and the case for making room
A duplex, a growing communications firm, and a family formed through adoption: James Madlom’s Milwaukee story keeps returning to a practical question. Who gets a place here?
Chas Withers and the Value of Leaving
His mentor encouraged him to leave Dix & Eaton and come back with more to offer. Now Chas Withers is testing how an employee-owned firm can keep its history while changing its future.
Deana Haworth and the people outside the plan
Raised in rural southern Indiana, Deana Haworth noticed who conventional campaigns were missing. Now the CEO of Hirons, she brings that attention to audiences, employee-owners and the next generation of leaders.
Phil Singer and the art of getting ahead of the story
A campaign spokesman learns quickly that the next question is already on its way. Phil Singer took that lesson from national politics into Marathon Strategies, where research, reputation, and the public argument share a desk.
Lyndsey Estin and the problem of the first answer
After two decades advising companies through consequential moments, Lyndsey Estin now leads Kekst CNC’s U.S. business. Her work in cybersecurity and AI asks a deceptively difficult question: what should a company say while it is still learning what happened?
Ron Sachs and the Art of Leaving the Chair
He opened his firm with three clients and enough savings for four months of failure. Thirty years later, Ron Sachs’s most revealing work may be the opportunities he has made for other people.
Jamie Diaferia and the uses of a second choice
He went to law school hoping to become the next Floyd Abrams. He built a communications firm instead - and Abrams became a client. For Jamie Diaferia, changing course was the beginning of the work.
Ken Spain Learned Politics in the War Room. Now He Helps Companies Survive It.
The Narrative Strategies CEO built his career where campaigns, companies and public opinion collide. His enduring lesson is disarmingly simple: prepare early, understand the audience and never let somebody else write your story first.
Michael Kempner Bet His Name on Independence
He began with campaign instincts, insurance money and no agency pedigree. Forty years later, the founder of MikeWorldWide is still making the case that independence is a working advantage, not a sentimental one.
Erik Smith Learned to Make the Message Survive the Room
From a tobacco farm to the control rooms of presidential conventions, Smith has spent a career learning what gets through. Then he built Seven Letter around that lesson - and around the usefulness of disagreement.
Andrew Cole Built a Career for the Moment the Script Breaks
For nearly three decades, the Maine-raised adviser has worked behind the announcements that move markets. His rise from junior associate to deputy global CEO reveals a quieter craft: deciding who needs to hear what, and when.
BGR Group Made a Product Out of Political Whiplash
Washington changes hands every few years. BGR turned that instability into a service - pairing access with policy depth, communications, and a network built to outlast any one administration.
Orchestra Bet That the Agency of the Future Would Look Like a Crowd
The communications business spent years splitting expertise into ever-smaller shops. Orchestra’s answer was to buy the specialists, keep their names, and teach them to play from the same score.
The Firm That Treats Every Boardroom Like Election Night
SKDK built a national communications business by importing the habits of political campaigns - research, message discipline, rapid response and a stubborn belief that every audience can be moved.
The PR Firm That Learned to Pitch the Answer Machine
5WPR built a large independent agency by answering journalism's five old questions. Now it is betting that the sixth question - who gets named by an AI - will remake the communications business.
The Ad Agency Where the People Making the Work Own the Place
Hirons sells advertising, public relations and digital strategy. Its more interesting product is alignment: the people doing the client work also own the company.