David R. Drobis
Chairman Emeritus, Ketchum
September 22, 2008

In a Facebook World, Face-to-Face is Still Important

To download a printable version of this speech, click here.

Thank you, Marilyn, for that nice introduction. It reminded me of why I've always loved this profession- nearly every moment was challenging, stimulating and often great fun.

It's a tremendous honor to have been chosen to join the Arthur W. Page Society Hall of Fame. And as I look around and see so many friends, I feel doubly honored. My career in public relations- and much of my life- has been shaped by many of you.

I thank the Board of Trustees, and I'd also like to acknowledge the other members of the Hall of Fame. Many of them have been role models and sources of inspiration.

I also thank my family and especially my wife, Bobbi, whose spirit- with great wisdom and guidance- has been perched on my shoulder for more than 45 years, pushing and prodding to make sure I do the right thing. Love is the one constant that moves us ahead. Thank you, Bobbi.
Receiving this honor is thrilling and daunting. I'm no longer as immersed in public relations, so the past six weeks- since I learned I would receive this award- has seemed like an out-of-body experience. My life has moved into a much different sphere and gear. In fact, I've finally, after several years, learned to write "retired" without cringing on all kinds of forms. And last winter I even began telling people on ski lifts I lived in Florida, instead of New York.

When you're told you're getting this award and the magnitude of it sinks in, you start to reflect on all of the people and events that got you here. And then you think about giving this speech to many of you and you think about how you're going to be meaningful.

I started by going to past speeches on the Page Web site and immediately read Steve Harris', in which he counsels not to read past speeches. Actually, I'd just like to read Steve's remarks today because I liked everything he said last year; or Bill Nielsen's of several years ago because he has such great perspective on the importance of public relations in the corporation; or Jim Murphy's because of his passion for our profession and its importance in society.

Marilyn Laurie's brought tears to my eyes when I heard it and again when I read it. Marilyn has great wisdom and humor and you see it in her marvelous anecdotes.

But I quickly realized I have to do my own thing. So, I gave a lot of thought to my career and our industry over the last four decades. And I landed on one prevailing theme: relationships.

Any success I've had I credit to the relationships I have with clients and colleagues and to relationships I've helped build for clients with their stakeholders.

A lot has changed about the ways relationships are started and maintained. Today, professionals meet and network through LinkedIn, Spoke and other Web sites. Whole public relations campaigns are conducted online.

Technology has been a great boon to our industry. But I think it's worth noting that even in this Facebook world, face-to-face is still important.

As I talk today, I'll first share with you some highlights of my career path and how I got here and then talk about some of the ways public relations has evolved. And before I end, I'd like to share a few life lessons on successfully retiring.

My path to this podium and my career- like many of yours- was both serendipitous and the result of good planning. As an undergrad focused on a career in psychology, I took a test in my senior year to determine my strengths and interests. I scored in the bottom percentile in psychology. So my psych professor and adviser suggested I look at journalism or something called "public relations," in which I scored in the top percentile.

After some investigation, public relations did sound interesting, so off I went to American University in Washington. And I loved it there- the professors, the internships, the case studies. It was where I learned my favorite definition of public relations. My favorite because it was so simple: "Do the right thing for all your constituencies and then make sure they know about it." It was from a textbook co-authored by Scott Cutlip who, incidentally, was the third person to receive this award 21 years ago. I met Mr. Cutlip at our meeting in San Diego several years ago. And it's great to be in his company.

After AU and a few jobs in Washington, I went to a firm called Ketchum, MacLeod and Grove by answering an ad in Ad Age that said nothing about the job being in Pittsburgh. But I was eventually dazzled by the big skyscrapers and by being in the then-largest corporate headquarters city outside of New York. I was hired to work on the Scott Paper business, which Ketchum lost the day I arrived. Fortunately, I was too naïve to be concerned. It was my first lesson in the agency business.

Ketchum then put me on a group of industrial accounts, but I wasn't real happy writing about widgets. So I lobbied to work in the corporate and consumer practices, where I handled the speaking schedule and eventually wrote speeches for legendary H.J. Heinz CEO Tony O'Reilly. I spent two weeks in Houston for the splashdown of Apollo 11 because our client Stouffer's fed the astronauts returning from our first moon landing. I really liked being in public relations. It was so interesting and it was involving.

When Ketchum opened a San Francisco office in the early '70s, I asked to leave the hills of Pittsburgh for the more spectacular ones in San Francisco. I spent the next decade there as San Francisco evolved from its agricultural economy to the technology-powerhouse it is today.

In the early '80s Ketchum moved the public relations headquarters from Pittsburgh to New York and I didn't want to miss that. So we gave up magnificent San Francisco for what I thought of as the "big time." My daughter, Melissa, and son, Craig, still talk about the dinner during which they were told they were leaving California as one of the worst nights of their lives. Not surprisingly, both live in California today.

With hindsight, I think about how naïve we were, as well as how smart, to even think about planting the Ketchum flag in a city that already had a lot of big flags.

But, to me, the magnitude and intensity of New York were amazing. In San Francisco, there were two or three issues a week. In New York, there were two or three an hour. I loved New York because of the many world-class corporate clients it attracted. And because of the people, who were creative, smart and full of energy. In the '80s and '90s, our profession was also becoming a force around the world- Paris and Munich and Sao Paulo and Beijing. It was great to be a part of our business as it was flourishing and becoming more relevant.

My appreciation for the Arthur W. Page Society comes here. There are so many reasons my career and life benefited from our Society- starting with the relationships I have with so many of you, along with your spouses and partners. Some of you I know well- others, casually, through brief conversations at cocktail parties and meeting "breaks."

In almost every face-to-face contact, you can learn something. Certainly, I did.

Through the Society, I also developed a new appreciation for the power and importance of public relations in the corporation. I'll admit I didn't know much about Arthur Page when I became a member, but I did take the time to learn. And I had a few people, like Jack Koten, who took the time to teach me.

Page's concept of public relations was much bigger and more thoughtful than some of our other founders. He put us at the management table.

Public relations is the fabric of the organization - not just a department. "It pervades everything in the organization," he said. "The whole company depends on it." Arthur Page was so ahead of his time.
I often wonder what he would think about our profession today, the constant change both in our industry and around it. Media consumption has changed and become so fragmented. There are fewer mass-audience, shared events. Entertainment trumps news. Everything is converging onto one hand-held device. Online social networking is pervasive among young people and is migrating up the generations.

Other things have changed, too. Companies and brands are under much more immediate scrutiny and criticism. Trust is more elusive. Just look at our financial institutions, our media and the political environment. Blogging has created the new first draft of history, and it is sometimes a pretty sloppy first draft. Globalization is real as issues instantly jump across continents. You needed only to have watched the Olympics to see how much the world is shared. Or watch the value of the dollar in relation to other currencies to feel the impact of a global economy.

It has been terrific to be a part of that for the past twenty years. Public relations gave me that opportunity.

But speaking of currency, I believe all of this just heightens the importance of what we do.Now more than ever, real relationships are the currency of brand building and good corporate leadership.

If you're building a brand, you know that the only brands people trust are the ones that actually deliver. Today in public relations, we do our best work when we help a brand to do the right thing and only then tell consumers about it. So, Scott Cutlip and Arthur Page had it right all those years ago.

But today more than ever, it's easier said than done. We have to invest in giving our people the tools to push back and effectively counsel management on what it means to do the right thing and actually change brand strategy and behavior. Because it's the right thing to do and because trying to "spin" it today only gets you on You Tube, with a drumbeat of e-mails that follow.

Investing in our people reminds me of one more issue that's always been important to me, and that's talent development and public relations education.

Don Wright covered it well in his Distinguished Service Award speech last year. It's always concerned me that we as a profession don't do more to support the schools that are training public relations people- either by hiring their students or working with the schools to improve the curricula process so we want to hire their students.

This came home to me recently when I spoke to a group of graduate students at the USC Annenberg School. The students were smart and diverse.

They came from all over the world and had a wide range of interests. They were genuinely excited about public relations and for the right reasons. They see it as a way to change things, make them better.

And in addition to having engaging Facebook profiles, they also were very impressive-face-to-face. In fact, they shared this frustration about the companies that recruit on campus: Most industries, they say, seek out people who are trained in their professions- while our industry often ignores students trained in public relations.

Certainly, we need to attract people who have a diversity of skills beyond communication. But we also need to be careful about sending the message that just about anyone can do our jobs.

Back to the importance of relationships: If you're building a corporate reputation or leading a company, you know that leadership has to earn the right to lead everyday. And you can no longer define a company's boundaries by the number of its full-time employees.

By design now, a corporation extends to part-time employees, freelance consultants, outsourced departments, an entire global supply chain and a network of business partners. Relationships built on trust are the glue that can hold such an ever-changing network together.

And our discipline can play a larger role in building those relationships. It's literally a world of opportunity if we're seen as the relationship experts.

So I'd suggest that while you're helping brands and companies with their B2B, B2C and high-tech word-of-mouth marketing, I hope you won't forget to throw in a little F2F, or face-to-face relationship building. Because while a lot has changed, real relationship building is still the most important game in town.

Today's environment, with its complexity, offers the greatest opportunity and challenges we've ever faced. Arthur Page, I know, would be very proud of how far we've come and the global scope of the communications process today.

Understanding this, I reflect on our profession with great pride and know we're up to the task. We do good things in the world through our communications efforts, and the information we provide makes a lot of people's lives better.

My career has been rewarding, filled with mostly good memories. The few that weren't so good I either learned from or swept out of mind. So when it came time to walk away, it was relatively easy. Each of you will get there someday. And when you do, I hope you'll remember the tips for "happy closure" I leave you with.

First: You will have a lot of free time- something I know most of you dream of today in your 24/7 world. Prepare for it mentally. Think about what you want to do and plan for gradual implementation. Among the best advice I got was not to make a lot of commitments in the beginning. You need time to adjust.

Second: If you can, retire gradually. I was fortunate because at Ketchum we had great depth of leadership and a good succession plan. I was chairman for two years after I was no longer CEO. Then I was part-time, then a consultant. I'm now "emeritus"- a title that comes in very handy for boards and when you're named to the Hall of Fame after retiring.

Third: Walk away but don't second guess. I'm still very passionate about our profession, the firm I helped create and many of our corporate clients. But while I have the historical perspective, I don't have the day-to-day to counsel effectively. Ray Kotcher and many of my other friends at Ketchum often reach out; they did particularly in the beginning. It is always appreciated, but it gets harder the further away you get.

Fourth: But stay involved in the profession. With our public relations experience, we have great understanding of how to make organizations work successfully. Non-profits, particularly, appreciate this. And this is the time to give back. I am thrilled when other board members at American University or the Naples Philharmonic Center- many of whom are current or former CEOs- turn to me for the public relations implication of an issue. My hope is that more corporate boards will soon recognize the value of having our perspective in a board seat.

Fifth: Take up something new. I'm learning to play golf after avoiding it for years. It's frustrating, challenging and takes a lot of that free time I now have.

Sixth: Get a dog. Mine is a Cavachon- she's a designer dog. Her name is Truffles. It took me hours to find her on the Internet, another many hours to pick her up at a farm in Berryville, Virginia, and many, many more hours to train her and walk her.

And, finally: Have grandchildren. My son, Craig and daughter-in-law, Sarah, had triplets a year ago next month. It takes a lot of time to watch three babies learn to crawl and put a little plastic ball in a little plastic basket. But it is great fun and wonderful to see your child as a parent. I am so fortunate that I now have the time to enjoy the most important relationships of all.

That takes us back to the beginning. I owe it all to that senior year testing course that led me to a career in public relations and the great friends and relationships I made because of it.

Again, thanks to my family for supporting me in dozens of ways. Thanks to all my friends and client colleagues at Ketchum. And thanks to all of you for putting my name on the same list with so many people we all admire- and for listening to me this afternoon.

Adam Christensen

Manager - Social Media Communications, IBM

Adam Christensen is the manager of IBM's social media communications, responsible for managing IBM's global adoption of Web 2.0 and driving the cultural change within the communications function. Adam also leads IBM's blogger relations efforts and is the community manager for the network of IBM's internal and external bloggers.

Prior to his current role, Adam held a number of positions within IBM in internal, executive and external communications. Before joining IBM, Adam held similar positions at Brodeur Worldwide in New York City and Novell, Inc. in Provo Utah.

Adam is a graduate of Brigham Young University. He currently resides in Stamford, Conn., with his wife and four children, but still pines longingly to move back to the milder winters of his youth in Southern California.

Membership Engagement Task Force

Anne McCarthy, Chair
Ann Barkelew
Angela Buonocore
Aedhmar Hynes
Rich Jernstedt
Helen Ostrowski

25th Anniversary Task Force

Matt Gonring, Chair
Ann Barkelew
Roger Bolton
Jon Iwata
Jack Koten
Jim O'Rourke
Helen Ostrowski
Kurt Stocker
Don Wright

Member Notes September 5, 2008

Member Notes

The Arthur W. Page Society continues to attract new members with impressive professional credentials. Many of our new members are planning to attend the Annual Conference this month. This will be a great way for them to jump start involvement in the Society and for other members to welcome them. We are very pleased to welcome the following new members who have joined the Society since our last Annual Meeting:

Christopher Atkins, Vice President Communications, Standard and Poors

Jeffrey Baum, Vice President Global Communications, EDS

Bruce Berger, Professor and Chairman, University of Alabama

Jonathan Blum, Chief Public Affairs Officer, YUM! Brands, Inc.

*Christa Carone, Vice President Global Communications, Xerox Corporation

*Antonio Cervone, GM North America Vice President, Communications, General Motors

Blair Christie, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Leslie Dach, Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

*Michael Davies, Global Director of Communications, PricewaterhouseCoopers

*Lisa Dollinger, Chief Communications Officer, ClearChannel Communications, Inc.

Kevin Donnellan, Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, AARP

*Stacey Eisen, Vice President, Global Public Affairs, Hospira, Inc.

*Genevieve Haldeman, Vice President Corporate Communications, Symantec Corporation

*Bill Heyman, President, Founder and CEO, Heyman Associates

Robert Hubbell, Managing Director, Cantor Fitzgerald

*William Hughes, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Computer Associates

Bill Imada, Chairman and CEO, IW Group, Inc.

Camilla Jenkins, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Fujifilm

*Frank Kalupa, Professor, James Madison University

*David Kamenetzky, Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Affairs, Mars, Inc.

Gail Lavielle, former Vice President Public Relations, Sears Holdings, Inc.

*Steve Littlejohn, Vice President Public Affairs, Express Scripts, Inc.

*Sandra Macleod, CEO, Echo Research Ltd.

Bob McAdam, Senior Vice President Government and Community Affairs, Darden Restaurants

Greg Pruett, Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations, PG&E Corporation

*Marie Remboulis, former Vice President Public Relations, Federal Mogul Corp.

*Trudy Sullivan, Senior Director Corporate Affairs, Micron Technology

Nicholas Sweers, Vice President Corporate Communications, Qwest Communications

Roxanne Taylor, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Accenture

*Linda Thrasher, Vice President Public Affairs, Mosaic

*Reid Walker, Vice President Global Communications and Sponsorship, Lenovo International

Sharon Wamble-King, Vice President Corporate Communication, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida

*Lowell Weiner, Vice President Corporate Communications, Medco Health Solutions, Inc.

*Kimberly White, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Baxter International, Inc.

*Those marked with an asterisk have registered for the Annual Conference in Cape Cod.

Walter Jennings recently presented The Authentic Enterprise to a New Media Summit organized by Frocomm in Australia. Walter, who is founder of Perception Counsel in Sydney, was told it was the most important presentation of the two-day event. Frocomm has now asked Walter to present at a CEO-only luncheon on social media.

On September 17 in New York the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics and the CFA Institute are co-sponsoring a half-day symposium on Earnings Guidance & Communication. Dean Krehmeyer, who has been working closely with the Arthur Page Authentic Enterprise task force on the development of a new white paper, has graciously invited interested Page members to attend this event at no charge. If interested, please contact him via e-mail at KrehmeyerD@darden.virginia.edu . The symposium will be held at Bloomberg's headquarters on Third Avenue between 58th and 59th from 8 am to 2:30 pm. Keynote speakers include William Donaldson, former SEC Chairman and founder of DLJ, and Robert Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management and former vice chairman of Fidelity Investments.

Sandra Macleod, CEO of Echo Research and Ken Makovsky, CEO of Makovsky and Company are working with board member Anne McCarthy of Western Union on a membership engagement research project. Echo is providing pro-bono research on our membership as a first step in developing ways to keep members actively engaged in the Society.

Mark your calendars for an Arthur W. Page Society luncheon meeting in Beijing, China on November 13, 2008. Additional details will be available shortly as the Society's Globalization Committee continues to reach out to other regions of the world. Additional meetings are being planned for Mumbai, Tokyo, Frankfurt or Brussels, and Sao Paulo as well as a second meeting in London. As soon as dates are confirmed we will advise members so that as many as possible might work these meetings into their travel schedules.

A summary of the recent Chicago networking meeting featuring Frank Vogl is available on the Page web site. A download of the speech is available here. as well as a written summary of his remarks. The August Chicago networking event drew more than 50 people to the Ritz-Carlton at Water Tower Place.

We also encourage you to visit the Page Society Blog "Page Turner," to engage in dialogue with fellow practitioners. In recognition of the 25th Anniversary of the Society we have invited our Hall of Fame and Distinguished Service Award winners to contribute their thoughts. The first of these is from Al Golin, chairman of Golin/Harris International. The blog is marked with the 25th Anniversary logo. The blog can be accessed through the Page Society website or by clicking here.

To submit items for Member Notes simply send an e-mail with your announcement to tnicholson@awpagesociety.com

August 2008 Chicago Regional Networking Meeting

Featuring Frank Vogl, founder of Transparency International and former head of communications at The World Bank

At the August 2008 Chicago regional networking meeting , Frank Vogl provided his thoughts on transparency and business ethics in a global environment. Frank was the first international member of the Arthur W. Page Society when he was the head of communications at The World Bank. A summary of his remarks follows.

He began by asking how do you get PR people involved in strengthening business ethics globally?

Globalization and the internet have combined to change the landscape for multi-national organizations. One of the challenges is that global companies have to not only think about maintaining a reputation of excellence at home, but also in scores of countries around the globe.

Enron has made this even more difficult as the US business model is viewed with greater skepticism around the globe. If there was seriously damaging publicity and propaganda about the role of multi-national companies before Enron, it has certainly increased since then. If there were people who were having an impact on corporate governance around the world and using the US model as a standard, then suddenly that model was being challenged as never before. Instead of being constructively proactive, you found that America's leading lights in this field were forced to being very defensive.

Enron also happened at a time when NGOs were becoming more effective and active in taking on corporations. While there are many NGOs which have exposed insidious relationships between governments and mineral companies around the world, many of these groups also have a decidedly anti-business bias.

Founding Transparency International

In the late 1990s several friends and I sat around a table and we said that it was a terrible tragedy that so much foreign aid was ending up in Swiss bank accounts and there was no organization dealing with corruption. We set up Transparency International to deal with corruption. We were able to find like- minded people in more than 90 countries. Today we have a headquarters in Germany and many alliances with business and NGOs around the world. The speed and growth of this organization could not have happened without the internet. We don't have an anti-business bias.

However, for some business is constantly a villain. The global corporation is constantly being monitored. It has nowhere to hide. You cannot adjust your standards of behavior from country to country. There is no way in which global companies can assess local cultural standards and say we will do business on those terms. The standards have to be elevated around the world.

As a founder of Transparency International, I am astonished at the number of calls I get from the press whenever the slightest scandal hits anywhere in the world. I can assure you that many in NGOs around the world are also getting these calls. And, they are more than willing to blast corporations, despite having very little substance. They can give good quotes and the media are only too willing to run with those quotes.

When a crisis hits

What happens time and time again when a crisis hits, is the lawyers in the corporation get involved. Or others in the company get involved to say that the media or the NGOs are overreacting. Or it's really an insignificant problem. All the while time is lost. And, during that time the NGOs are doing enormous damage to corporate reputations.

As companies have nowhere to hide, they also have nowhere to minimize the problems they have. Problems are not just confined to a local market anymore. When a company like Siemens is found to have paid $2 billion in bribes around the world, several things happen.

1. Their reputation is damaged.
2. NGOs immediately begin looking at governments in their countries to see if they have relations with Siemens
3. Siemens now has enormous battles to fight in every country where they do business
4. Public prosecutors get involved. There are now 89 companies in Germany under investigation for international bribery - payments to foreign government officials.

This is unprecedented. For many years the United States was the only government with a foreign corrupt business practices act which meant it was a crime to pay a bribe to a foreign government official. German companies could actually get tax deductions for their bribes.

Today it is different. Companies are being monitored and this poses an enormous challenge. Big business is widely distrusted throughout the world.

The facts are that there has been enormous progress in the area of corporate social responsibility. Today, there are hundreds of companies publishing very serious corporate social responsibility reports out. However, business has not done very well at convincing the public that there has been progress in this area.

Putting Profits Above All Else

The problem is that the perceptions of so many industries around the world are perceptions of companies that have preyed at the altar of profit maximization. Each of these scandals only helps to accentuate the problem.

We work with the world's largest banks - which lost no less than $450 billion in the last few months. Those CEOs whom we worked with are in many cases no longer there. However, they got severance packages that were so massive that people had to ask what kind of ethics are pervasive at these companies?

How do we deal with this?

1. Practice good ethics
2. Communicate values
3. Be proactive in integrity leadership

It is easy to say "Don't pay bribes." But, US law says that companies may pay facilitating fees - defined as grease payments to overcome petty extortion fees. These facilitating payments are bribes. Can you imagine a senior official of another country coming to the United States and bribing customs officials to get his goods through customs? Yet, our law says it is fine to make these payments around the world. Companies that pay them are paying bribes. Most companies use them and their lawyers justify them. They are living in a fantasy world thinking they can claim to not pay bribes, only facilitating payments. But, they are being monitored by NGOs and others. And the rest of the world sees these payments for what they are.

Companies need to stick to true values. Don't do just what is in compliance, but go beyond that to do what is right. Doing what is right not only in the eyes of the justice department, but also in the eyes of people overseas. This is easy to say, but it is a constant battle.

A few years ago Jim Sinclair, a remarkable visionary, asked me to help him build a mining company in Tanzania. Everyone told us you will have to pay bribes to be successful. We went to phenomenal lengths to demonstrate to the government that they should trust us, that we were long term investors and we would do everything in a transparent way. Gradually, we built a reputation where we were trusted. We did not pay bribes. If we had to wait in line for a permit, we waited in line. We opened the first successful mining company there. There are now 60 companies. Our company was eventually sold and the successor company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the country. The investments are making a difference. The man we worked with in the mining ministry in the early 90s is today the president of that country. When he became president, he fired half of the cabinet for taking bribes.

There are ways companies can follow the Sinclair example and operate without paying bribes. And in those instances where it is not possible, companies should quit and walk away.

Communicating Values

On communicating values, George Fisher, the former CEO of Eastman Kodak, said that without values you don't have a company. The older we get the more important values are. A company is only as good as its values system.

In 2002 Jack Welch devoted almost all of his shareholder letter to values. In an age where it is no longer possible to have great pyramidic structures , you need to have everyone in the company to buy into integrity. He had come to understand the business value of that. He also understood that it demands constant internal communication of the corporate values in order to get it right.

We have seen a neglect of that in quite a few institutions. Where you have an emphasis on business generation irrespective of good business principles, disaster is the result.

Very few companies work so hard year in and year out to reinforce the corporate credo as Johnson & Johnson. It is not simply talk, but is reinforced in every annual report, every meeting and in every decision they make. The credo puts the mothers, doctors, nurses and customers they serve as most important. Profits are a byproduct of serving these key constituencies well.

Milton Friedman believed the role of corporations is to maximize profit. With all due respect, if that becomes the only goal, the company is setting itself up for failure.

Look at BP. The company had two major crises back to back. In Texas 14 people lost their lives in an accident. An investigation by an independent third party, led by former Secretary of State James Baker, found this was not just an accident. It was the result of tremendous corporate neglect. This, in a company that declared it was a leader in corporate social responsibility.

If you just have the rhetoric and not the management systems behind it, the NGOs will find you.

Arthur Page himself would likely be stressing globalization and integrity as a core theme today. It is absolutely central and core to the role of corporate communications.

It's time for CEOs to understand that they have to turn to corporate communicators consistently. Corporate communicators are the only people who have the ability to really understand the NGO movement around the world, to understand what is shaping perceptions of corporations around the globe and to understand the trust issues.

Position Title: Director, Media and Public Relations

BASIC FUNCTION: Develops and directs the company's external communications programs and opportunities including: Establishing and managing national and local news media relationships and outreach to increase awareness of and receptivity to the Northwestern Mutual brand. Serving as primary strategist and spokesperson on issues confronting the company. Supporting the CEO and other senior management in engaging key stakeholders through effective messaging and management of public images. Managing, in conjunction with Director Corporate Relations, highly sensitive cases that may threaten the company's reputation, e.g. litigation, regulation, hostile parties utilizing media or other means, etc. Managing key vehicles to ensure the company utilizes appropriate strategic, consistent and clear messages through a variety of media, including emerging technology. Providing overall direction to the public relations consulting support provided to the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, its leadership and the field-facing Home Office departments re: field opportunities and issues. Ensuring that appropriate public relations resources and priorities are established and implemented for product and marketing initiatives of the company. Establishing and managing measurement processes to show how efforts support business objectives.

QUALIFICATIONS: Ten to fifteen years experience in professional corporate communications and/or public relations, including at least 5 years in-depth experience re: issues and reputation management. Proven strategic thought leadership in the communications profession. Ability to manage and develop professional level staff and align resources to achieve desired objectives. Demonstrated strong verbal and written communications skills. Specialized knowledge of executive, financial and/or crisis communications. Minimum Bachelor's degree in Mass Communications, Journalism, Public Relations or a related field. Desirable qualifications: Financial industry background preferred; experience in developing and executing brand or advertising strategies would be a plus.

Please apply to any current openings by visiting our website: http://www.nmfn.com/tn/careers--corp--corporate

Public Relations: Tenure-Track Faculty Position

The School of Communications of Quinnipiac University seeks candidates for a tenure-track appointment at the assistant or associate level in the area of public relations to start August, 2009. Candidates with appropriate terminal degree preferred; ABDs will be considered. Individuals offering exceptional professional credentials are encouraged to apply. Candidates interested in teaching public relations research are especially encouraged to apply. Other curricular opportunities include core classes such as writing, principles, campaigns and management, and topics of the candidate's special interest, which may include international public relations, crisis management, political public relations, financial relations, entertainment public relations, marketing public relations, sports marketing.

The Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center at Quinnipiac University is a state of the art instructional facility that includes a fully high definition television studio and post production facility.

Quinnipiac University is in Hamden, Connecticut, ten minutes from downtown New Haven, ninety minutes from NYC, and two hours from Boston. Sleeping Giant State Park provides a dramatic background to the pristine 500 acre New England campus where 280 full-time faculty teach more than 5,200 full-time undergraduate students and 2,000 graduate students in our schools of communications, business, health, and law, and the College of Liberal Arts, which also contains the division of education. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top universities with master's degree programs in the northern region in US News and World Report's America's Best Colleges. For more information, please visit www.quinnipiac.edu.

Applicants should submit cover letter, curriculum vitae, statement of teaching philosophy, names and contact information for three references, and selected publications to Dr. Kurt Wise, Chair, Department of Public Relations, Quinnipiac University, SB-MCM, 275 Mt. Carmel Avenue, Hamden, CT 06518 or via email: kurt.wise@quinnipiac.edu. Final consideration of candidates will begin October 15, 2007 and continue until position is filled.

Quinnipiac University has a strong commitment to the principles and practices of diversity throughout the university community and we welcome candidates who would enhance that diversity.

PR Leadership Forum West, September 3-5, 2008

Co-sponsored by the Arthur W. Page Society, this event has been designed especially for those who report to our members in corporate communications departments and at public relations agencies.

We are partnering with our colleagues at the Institute for Public Relations and the Council of Public Relations Firms to offer the Public Relations Leadership Forum, an intense program for high-performing, mid-career managers at public relations firms, plus Global 1000 corporate communications professionals whose primary responsibilities include working with public relations agencies. The Leadership Forum's major objective is to develop outstanding future leaders of public relations and communications, and to provide networking opportunities where upwardly mobile professionals can learn from national leaders in the field and from each other.

The Leadership Forum is limited to 35 registered participants to enhance discussion, networking opportunities and learning exchange. This highly successful format has worked splendidly during Leadership Forum programs held in Atlanta for the past four years, prompting us to offer it on the West Coast.

This intense, two-day learning opportunity takes place September 3-5 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott. Complete registration information is available at: http://www.instituteforpr.org/education/PRLF_west. Additional information is available from Dr. Don Wright, the Page and Institute board member who directs this program, at 617-306-4006 or DonaldKWright@aol.com.

The Leadership Forum's curriculum focuses on the science beneath the art of public relations and how to strengthen the management policy role of the corporate public relations officer. The event's instructional team includes Bill Nielsen, the retired Corporate Vice President of Public Affairs and Corporate Communications, Johnson & Johnson; Dr. Elliot Schreiber, formerly the chief communications officer at Bayer USA and Nortel and currently Professor of Marketing, Bennett LeBow College of Business, Drexel University; Maril MacDonald, CEO, Gagen MacDonald and President of the Arthur W. Page Society; Dave Samson, General Manager - Public Affairs, Chevron Corporation; Peter Debreceny, retired Vice President - Corporate Relations, Allstate Insurance Company; Dr. Donald K. Wright, Professor of Public Relations, Boston University; John Gilfeather, Executive Vice President, Stakeholder Management, TNS; and others.

Topics addressed include the role corporate communications plays in building reputation, the singular character of public relations, communication ethics, how corporate communicators and public relations firms can work effectively together, and communications research.

We hope you will seriously consider sending someone from your organization to the Public Relations Leadership Forum, September 3-5 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott.

© 2008 Arthur W. Page Society, 317 Madison Avenue, Suite 2320, New York, NY 10017, phone 212-400-7959, fax 212-922-9198