Specialization(s):
Corporate Governance, Government Relations/Public Affairs, Issues Management, Other, Reputation Management, Social Responsibility
Bruce Harrison, a former corporate relations executive in New York, is an author, counselor and adjunct professor in graduate public relations studies at Georgetown University, Washington, DC.
As Vice President and chief communications officer, Freeport Minerals Company (now Freeport McMoran), he led public and government relations programs for mining projects in Europe, Latin America and Asia, including the launch of a major copper development program in Irian Jaya, West Papua, Indonesia.
He subsequently founded E. Bruce Harrison Company and EnviroComm International, a consultancy operating in the U.S. and Europe, specializing in environmental, health and safety communication, which he now serves as chairman and strategic counsel.
In 1992, Harrison was chief communications counselor to the U. S. business delegation at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the first “Earth Summit”) in Rio de Janeiro. As a member of the Environment Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce, Harrison wrote “transparency and accountability” guidelines for corporate environmental communications, adopted at the conference.
In 2000, PR Week named him as one of the “100 Most Influential Public Relations Professionals of the 20th Century” and the Washington, DC, PRSA Chapter elected him to its Hall of Fame.
Harrison has written three books on environmental communications, including Going Green: How to Communicate Your Company’s Environmental Commitment (1993, Business One Irwin/McGraw Hill); and Corporate Greening 2.0: Create and Communicate Your Company’s Climate Change and Sustainability Strategies (2008, PublishingWorks). He is a frequent columnist, editor and speaker on corporate greening, and authored the Gold Paper on Sustainable Development for the International Public Relations Association. He is currently writing a book on leadership communication, entitled How Leaders Communicate, How Communicators Lead.
A graduate of the University of Alabama, he was a reporter and managing editor at two newspapers in Alabama and Georgia, before going to Washington as press secretary to a Member of the House of Representatives, leaving that post to join the Chemical Manufacturers Association (now, the American Chemistry Council) as vice president.
Harrison has served as director on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards, including Guest Services, Inc., Trout Unlimited, Asia Consultants Association, the Arthur W. Page Society, Pinnacle Worldwide, Public Relations News and the Society of Professional Journalists. He served on the advisory committees of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, the US Council for International Business, and the International Public Relations Association; and was National Co-Chair of Project Watchdog, promoting First Amendment rights and responsibilities of the American working press. He is a life member of the Chemists Club of New York, the National Press Club and the PRSA Counselors Academy, and is accredited and a Fellow of the Public Relations Society of America.
Recognitions include the 2009 Distinguished Service Award from the Arthur W. Page Society; the 2001 Betsy Plank Distinguished Achievement Award from the Capstone Society, University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences; the Society of Professional Journalists Board of Directors Distinguished Service Award for the initiation of Project Watchdog on press freedom; an AP Radio award for news writing; a National Humanities Endowment Award for playwriting; and a Global Award for Environmental Communications from the International Public Relations Association. His articles on communication, leadership and social accountability have been published in many magazines, peer-review journals, news and opinion channels, both old-style and on-line.
Since 1997, Harrison has served as a consultant on corporate communications and government relations assignments for Navistar, Inc., with offices in the Ronald Reagan Building, Washington.
