Arthur W. Page Society president Maril MacDonald and 62 other Page members attended the 2009 meeting of PR Seminar May 20-23 at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Attendance was a record low 127 PR executives, down from 162 at the 2008 Seminar at Four Seasons Troon, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Maril MacDonald |
A record class of 46 “freshman” was inducted, indicating high turnover in a group that at one time only admitted a half dozen new members a year. Seminar, faced with low attendance, opened the door wide to new members.
Tradition is that as long as members keep their jobs, they can continue to attend the meeting. They may attend for one year after loss of job.
Registration was $3,350 per couple (almost all attendees bring a spouse or companion). Hotel, travel, meals and sports activities were extra.
Meetings of business people at expensive resorts have been under heavy fire since AIG executives met at such a resort last year after being awarded billions in federal aid. PR counselor John Budd specifically criticized the PR Seminar meeting.
AIG is line to receive $179 billion in bailout funds.
Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel |
Peter Sussman, a member of the Ethics Committee of the Society of Professionals Journalism, speaking only for himself, found that the PR Seminar meeting, which always includes journalists from major media as speakers, violated more than 10 articles in the SPJ Ethics Code.
Alan Murray, executive editor, Wall Street Journal Online, addressed the 2009 Seminar. No media except O’Dwyer publications has ever mentioned the existence of Seminar.
MacDonald was sent the criticisms of Sussman but has not commented on them.
AIG Exec Led Discussion on Meltdown
Nicholas Ashooh, SVP of communications, AIG, led a discussion of the “Global Financial Crisis” with Michael O’Neill, SVP of corporate affairs, American Express, which has received $3.4 billion in government aid.
Both refused to supply any of the remarks they made.
PR executives who attended last year but not this year and whose companies have received bailout funds were David Palombi, Freddie Mac, which has received $44B in bailout money; Charles Greener, Fannie Mae ($15B); Joseph Evangelisti, JPMorgan Chase (which was sent $25B but says it is giving it back), and Debra DeCourcy, Fifth Third Bancorp (3.4B).
Attending 2009 Seminar were Donna Peterman of PNC Financial Services, which has received $7.6B in aid, and Toni Simonetti, GMAC, which has received $5B in aid.
Steve Harris, VP of global communications, aid recipient General Motors, a member of the 30-member governing committee of Seminar, did not attend this year.
Twenty-one members of that committee are members of Page. [O’Dwyer publications mostly refer to Page/PR Seminar rather than “PR Seminar” because Page members are so dominant in Seminar].
Fourteen of the 30 trustees of Page are members of Seminar.
New Members Listed
Attending in 2009, but who were not listed on the 2008 roster, are those listed below on an attendance list as of May 20. Only three have “PR” in their titles.
Vincent Borg, SVP, CC, Barrick Gold Corp.
James Boyd, VP-PR-Americas, Singapore Airlines
Bryan Brown, dir., corp. IR, Chiquita Brands Int’l
Ian Campbell, Mng. Dir.-West, Abernathy MacGregor
Daniel Collins, Div. VP-CC, Corning
Marguerite Copel, VP-CC, Dean Food Co.
Paula Davis, VP-CC, Pepsi Bottling
Ray Day, VP-C, Ford Motor
John Downs, SVP-PA & Comms., Coca-Cola Ent.
Marie Eckstein, Corp. VP, chief admin. Officer, Dow Corning
Darryl Fraser, Corp. VP-C, Northrop Grumman
Christine Heenan, VP-Gov., Community and PA, Harvard
Herbert Heitmann, SVP-global C, SAP, Germany
William Heyman, Heyman Assocs., executive recruiters
Claire Holmes, Univ. Comms., Univ. of Calif.
William Imada, CEO, IW Group
Ronald Iori, Iori & Assocs., Philadelphia
Richard Jones, SVP, CCO, Guardian Life Ins.
David Kamenetzky, global VP, corp. affairs., MARS
Ray Kotcher, CEO, Ketchum
Michael Laatsch, VP-PR and CC, Western Southern Fin’l
Dan Lewis, Global chief PA officer, Molson Coors
Ellie Loats, XVP, Research Strategies Corp.
Pamela Lowe, VP-CC, Cintas Corp.
Maril MacDonald, CEO, Gagen MacDonald
Alan Marks, SVP-CC, eBay
Kathleen Matthews, XVP, global C, Marriott Int’l
Anne McCarthy, XVP, corp. affairs, Western Union
Svetlana Mironyuk, editor-in-chief, Russian News Agency
Jeannette Morgan, Sr. Dir., worldwide gov. affairs, National Semiconductor
David Nicoli, VP-CA, AstraZeneca Pharma.
Valerie O’Neil, VP-global C, Starbucks Coffee Co.
David Paine, chmn., Paine PR
Konstantin Panin, Dir. PR, Basic Element, Moscow
Howard Paster, XVP, WPP Group
Elizabeth Pizzinato, VP-global C, Four Seasons Hotels
Ronald Rand, SVP-CC, Lockheed Martin
Kiley Rawlins, VP-IR & C, Family Dollar Store
David Shane, VP-corp. ext. rels., Hewlett-Packard
Heidi Sinclair, Heidi Sinclair & Co., Mercer Island, Wash.
Wendi Strong, XVP-CC, USAA Insurance
Daniel Tarman, XVP, head of mktg. comms., PIMCO
Luca Virginio, group coms., ext. rels., Barilla, Italy
Simon Walker, CEO, British Private Equity, London
Ann Walker Marchant, Walker Marchant Group, D.C.
Chris Winans, SVP-ext. affairs, AXA-Equitable.
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