Expertise
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
- Warren Buffett
Legendary investor Warren Buffett coined the term “economic moat” to describe a durable competitive advantage that protects a company’s future profits and market share, much like a moat protects a castle.
PR is a long-term investment in credibility. Just as companies spend billions on capital expenditures to widen their economic moats, they also invest in PR to secure long-term competitive advantage because PR builds one of the most common moats: brand reputation. It widens moats by de-risking businesses, strengthening pricing power, and increasing operating efficiency by making every marketing dollar go further.
Thought Leadership PR & Crisis and Issues Management
I like to organize PR strategies around the persistent, key conversations that an organization wants to shape, lead, or participate in. This approach integrates thought leadership, issues management, and corporate announcements into a coherent, cross-channel content strategy that enables more proactive positioning and more meaningful measurement of PR outcomes over time. It also supports more integrated, long-term reputation management as AI search reshapes how people discover and interact with brands.
I shape high-stakes conversations to strengthen reputations through two primary specialties: thought leadership PR and crisis and issues management. Thought leadership proactively builds reputations while crisis and issues management defend them.
Thought Leadership PR
I enjoy making complex information accessible to wider audiences through compelling narratives. I started my career promoting research and experts in the press for one of the world's leading research universities. Since then, I've built a career helping organizations, executives, and subject-matter experts lead key industry conversations in the press.
My thought leadership PR expertise includes:
Executive visibility: positioning senior executives as industry leaders
Research PR: leveraging proprietary data and research to shape key conversations in the press
Spokesperson strategy: identifying, developing, and positioning spokespeople as media experts
Financial communications: driving messaging that shapes high-stakes market narratives that resonate with investor audiences
Thought leadership PR content strategy: developing editorial strategies that deliver consistent, measurable results aligned with business priorities
Below is a sample of thought leadership media placements I have secured by proactively building relationships with reporters, leaders, and subject-matter experts.
Sample Thought Leadership Media Placements
Crisis and Issues Management
Over the course of my career, I’ve managed media relations to help navigate political controversies, shaped high-stakes industry conversations in the press, revamped crisis playbooks, and managed national rapid-response media relations for global Fortune 200 organizations.
I began my career with a crash course in high-profile crisis and issues management. At The University of Texas at Austin, I assisted the Chief Communications Officer in protecting the reputation of a highly visible public institution and a multi-billion-dollar brand amid intense public and political scrutiny. I also assisted university leadership in modernizing crisis communications protocols for the Web 2.0 era.
Since then, I’ve spent my career in B2B services environments where protecting a firm's credibility is paramount because the high stakes of doing business make decision-makers risk-averse. There’s an old saying in corporate America that “no one ever got fired for hiring IBM,” which reflects how the most trusted brands maintain premium prices and market share because corporate decision-makers are incentivized to make safe bets.
Crises and issues I’ve managed include:
A U.S. Supreme Court challenge to a university’s affirmative action admissions policies
Implementation of a controversial state “campus carry” gun law
Tensions between a state agency and state government leadership
The removal of Confederate statues from a university campus
Large-scale public safety emergencies in the wake of fatal university campus attacks
Negative market narratives about office real estate, data centers, brick-and-mortar retail, and population migration
Workplace protocols throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
Scrutiny of regional bank stability following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse
Public opposition to a public agency’s plans for its real estate portfolio
Public opposition to real estate transactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Public opposition to data center construction
My crisis and issues management expertise includes:
Issues management: anticipating and responding to issues before they escalate to crises
Rapid response communications: responding to breaking issues with accurate, consistent messaging
Crisis communications: mapping risks and pressure-testing response plans before a crisis hits
Executive crisis counsel: advising senior leaders under pressure and preparing spokespeople
Regulated communications: navigating communications that carry legal consequences