James E. Lukaszewski (loo-ka-SHEV-skee) advises, coaches, and counsels the men and women
who run very large corporations and organizations. The bulk of his practice is in the
Western Hemisphere, although he has clients from most parts of the world. He believes that
the communications problems they face can be solved through superior personal leadership
skills combined with positive, strategic communication.
He is a specialist in trouble-shooting tough, touchy, sensitive corporate communications
issues. He provides counsel to companies facing serious internal and external problems
involving: activist counteraction; community relations and grassroots campaigns; corporate
relations failures; reputational threats; crisis communication management; employee
relationship building; ethics/integrity/compliance; litigation visibility management;
management communication strategies; media relations strategy and analysis; public
affairs/exposure management; strategic Web site construction; Web-based attacks; and
strategy. His broad-based experience ranges from media-initiated investigations to product
recalls and plant closings, from criminal litigation to takeovers. He is frequently
retained by senior management to directly intervene and manage the resolution of corporate
problems and bad news. The situations he helps resolve often involve conflict, controversy,
community action or activist opposition. The fastest growing portion of his practice
involves civil and criminal litigation.
He helps prepare spokespersons for crucial public appearances, local and network news
interviews including 20-20, 60 Minutes, Dateline NBC, and Nightline, financial analyst
meetings, legislative and congressional testimony; and personal coaching for executives in
trouble or facing career-defining problems.
He is a prolific author (several books, more than 130 articles), lecturer (corporate,
college and university), trainer, counselor, and public speaker. He is quoted in
publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald, the
Harvard Business Review, and industry trade journals. He authors the quarterly column
strategy for pr reporter, is a member of the editorial board for Ragan's Public Relations
Journal, a contributing editor to Public Relations Quarterly, a contributing columnist to
PR News, a member of InfoCom's Media Relations Insider editorial advisory board, and was
the first crisis columnist for the PRSA's member publication, PR Tactics. His book
Influencing Public Attitudes: Strategies that Reduce the Media's Power was published in
December 1992 by the Issue Action Press. The Public Relations Society of America released
fully revised editions his Executive Action© Crisis Communication Management System in
September 2000: War Stories and Crisis Communication Strategies, An Anthology; Crisis
Communication Planning Strategies, A Workbook; and Media Relations During Emergencies,
A Guide. He published 19 unabridged monographs on critical communication subjects since
1994, three based on chapters he authored in books published by Gale Research, Exxon
Valdez: The Great Crisis Management Paradox; McGraw-Hill, Building Quality Community
Relationships: A Planning Model to Gain and Maintain Public Consent; and the Public
Relations Society of America, The Newest Discipline: Managing Legally Driven Issues.
His clients will tell you that he is a pragmatist and straight shooter. He has won a
reputation for doing as well as thinking. He is a teacher, thinker, coach, and friend with
the unique ability to help executives look at problems from a variety of principled
perspectives, to think through and strategize in new ways and to take appropriate, highly
focused, ethically appropriate action. He has personally counseled, coached, and guided
thousands of executives in organizations large and small across the U.S. and from many
cultures representing government; the military and defense industry; the agriculture,
banking, computer, financial, food processing, health care, insurance, paper, real estate
development and telecommunications industries; cooperatives; trade and professional
associations; and non-profit agencies. He is one of the few who can and truly does coach
CEOs.
An accredited member (APR) of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and a
member of its College of Fellows (Fellow PRSA), Mr. Lukaszewski is a member of the PRSA's
Board of Ethics & Professional Standards and is active in the Counselors Academy, the
Corporate, Employee Relations, and Public Affairs/Government Sections and the New York City
Chapter. He is also a member of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, the
International Churchill Society, and The Issue Management Council. He is an Adjunct
Associate Professor of Communications at New York University's School of Continuing and
Professional Studies and has served as a civilian advisor to the United States Marine
Corps and several federal agencies. He lectures annually at the U.S. Marine Corp's East
Coast Commander's Media Training Symposium and is an internationally recognized speaker on
crisis management, ethics, media relations, public affairs, and reputation preservation and
restoration.
Lukaszewski received his B.A. degree in 1974 from Metropolitan State University in
Minnesota. He is a former deputy commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Economic
Development and assistant press secretary to former Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson.
He founded Minnesota-based Media Information Systems Corporation in 1978. Prior to
founding The Lukaszewski Group Inc. in 1989 he was senior vice president and director of
Executive Communication Programs for Georgeson & Company and a partner with Chester Burger
Company, both in New York City.
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