Steve Lombardo, ex-Edelman, B-M, Heads Koch PR

Steve Lombardo, identified as ex-Burson-Marsteller in the Jan. 25 New Yorker article on the Koch brothers but also previously with Edelman, is PR head of Koch Industries.

New Yorker writer Jane Mayer, who could not gain an interview with Lombardo, found quotes of his in a Dec. 7, 2012 piece written for O’Dwyer’s by Lombardo, then with Edelman/D.C., as “corporate reputation strategist,” and Jackie Cooper, vice chair of brand properties, Edelman/London.

The passage in the New Yorker is as follows:

Steve Lombardo

“Lombardo believed that the key to creating a positive brand was to reach the public’s ‘subconscious mind,’ as he wrote in O’Dwyer’s, the public relations trade journal. The most effective ‘pathway’ to the subconscious, he argued, was ‘storytelling,’ in part because it tapped into emotions. He expanded on this in a Koch Industries newsletter. ‘Building a brand is telling a story,’ he explained. It is about giving people a sense of who you are, what you believe in, and what you are doing to improve their lives.’”

Mayer called up senior editor John O’Dwyer who referred her to senior editor Jon Gingerich who is also quoted in the article. Mayer also obtained quotes from O’Dwyer columnist Fraser Seitel and contributing editor Michael Paul.

A current pattern in PR is for institutions to refuse to deal with media that are deemed to be hostile.

Jane Mayer and her new book Dark Money

Mayer Has New Book on Kochs

Mayer wrote a New Yorker profile of the Koch brothers in 2010 that described their efforts to raise more than $100 million to critique the policies of the Obama Administration.

She has just published Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. The book asks, “Why are we living in an age of profound economic inequality?”

Richard Fink Key Strategist

Introduced as the “grand strategist” of the Kochs at a June 2014 summit meeting of donors at a resort near Laguna Beach, Calif., was Richard Fink, executive VP and a director of Koch Industries.

Richard Fink

He is also a director of Americans for Prosperity, which has 1,200 people involved full time, according to Politico. The Kochs have raised nearly $900 million for 2016 elections campaigns, more than twice as much as the sum spent by the Republican National Committee in the 2012 Presidential election.

The Mayer article quotes extensively from a tape of the secret session provided by blogger Lauren Windsor. Fink told the meeting that while the Kochs had been successful mobilizing one-third of the electorate, the conservatives and libertarians, they needed the support of the “middle third” who identified with liberals and saw big business as “greedy…they don’t care about the underprivileged.”

Kochs Make Public Appearances

Mayer reports on the appearance of usually reclusive Charles Koch at the Nov. 2, 2015 gala of the Wichita Chamber of Commerce as headline speaker.

One purpose, she said, was to publicize his new book, Good Profit, about his business philosophy.

The theme of the Mayer article is that while the Kochs are in favor of reform of the criminal justice system it has not worked hard enough to push this through Congress. A sticking point is that proposed additions to the legislation would make it harder to prosecute alleged corporate crimes.

The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world—2.2 million people. About one in every 20 African-American adults is in prison.