Robert Cornet Email & Phone Number

Washington D.C. Metro Area

As the Think/Write Company, we provide communications strategy, change communications, and writing services to for profit and non-profit organizations across all industry sectors. In our engagements, we have:• Created the strategy and drove the execution for the North American operations of a global leader in beverage alcohol to gain the understanding and assent of its major stakeholders in the most significant transformation of the US spirits industry since Prohibition, that is, the consolidation of the company’s route to market with strategic distributors• Created a combined direct-contact and web-based grassroots advocacy campaign, supported by dominating media relations, to defend a three-hospital healthcare system in Denver from a hostile takeover by one of its sponsors• Helped transform the safety culture of one of the nation’s leading, sustainable energy companies from a “blame, shame, and retrain” culture to a “learning and improving” culture• Created and executed the communications strategy to support the changeover to ICD-10 (the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases) at a Seattle community hospital system; result of the strategy was measurable increased understanding of, and support for, using ICD-10 among key stakeholders• Supported the CEO of a leading consulting company in his testimony before a US Senate taskforce on workforce change • Helped an international consulting company maintain its “thought leadership” in the industry by developing the editorial strategy and producing all copy for its bi-annual briefing report on the competitive state of the property-casualty insurance industry• Supported the head of corporate affairs at the world’s leading spirits company in making his argument that spirits advertising ought to be widely accepted on broadcast and cable television

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

Responsibilities:• Developed the marketing communications strategy for this Midwestern private university; managed a 15-person staff of writers, designers, and media relations specialists and a multimillion-dollar budgetMajor achievement:• Created the strategy that resulted in Butler moving up three places in one year in the annual US News and World Report (USNWR) "Best Colleges" ranking to be rated the third best private Midwestern university; the strategy included repositioning the alumni quarterly tabloid as a flagship "image" magazine and targeting college presidents and enrollment managers who are the principal “voters” in the USNWR ranking

Valhalla, New York, United States

Responsibilities:• Served as marketing communications head for Towers Perrin’s General Management business (formerly known as Cresap) and for the Financial Institutions practice of the firm; managed the firm’s relations with two outside public relations companies; responsible for million-dollar budget• Provided strategic counsel and support to the head of Towers Perrin’s marketing communications division• Served as speechwriter to Towers Perrin’s CEO and other senior executivesMajor achievements:• Developed the strategy to reposition the reputation of the firm and its brand from being perceived as essentially a benefits consulting company to a company of broad-based business advisors through a Workforce 2000 issues campaign• Directed the firms’ collaboration with the US Senate’s Taskforce on Workplace Readiness that resulted in a special hearing on Workforce 2000, highlighted by the opening testimony from Towers Perrin’s CEO, which I prepared

New York, New York, United States

• Managed research, programs and presentations, and fundraising for the Academy of Corporate Governance, the signature outreach program of the Fordham Graduate School of Business to the business community

New York, New York, United States

• Taught courses for the Managing Media and Communications program that included public relations management, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance• Co-authored “Management Challenges in the 1990s” with Milan Zeleny and James A. F. Stoner in Managing Toward the Millennium, published by Fordham University Press in conjunction with the XXI World Management Congress

New York, New York, United States

• Served as chief issues management officer for the company, tasked with developing company-wide responses to business threats including proposed boycotts of the company and its sponsors because of NBC’s advertising and programming decisions• Managed a 20-person department with a multimillion-dollar budget encompassing editorial services, internal communications, audience services, and corporate philanthropy• Served as chief speechwriter for the CEO and senior executivesMajor achievements:• Developed the successful strategy to counter the plausible threat of a ban on beer and wine advertising on television and radio posed by a coalition led by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The strategy included redefining the issue consistent with NBC’s corporate social responsibility principles – from “ban the ads” to “stop abuse among young people” – redefining NBC’s position – from “defend the right to advertise” to “make the industry part of the solution, not part of the problem” – and creating a coalition of all stakeholders under the aegis of the Juvenile Justice Department – including CSPI, the national PTA, brewers, wine makers, other national and local broadcasters, and national advertisers – called the National Partnership to Prevent Abuse Among Youth. As a result, the industry was praised by the president and Congress, and NBC dramatically improved its relationship with its special interest stakeholders• Produced NBC’s first televised town hall for all employees, linking its two corporate locations (New York and Los Angeles) and its seven owned and operated stations• Wrote the farewell address for embattled CEO Fred Silverman to the national meeting of affiliates in 1980, which had to function as a farewell without explicitly announcing he was leaving