Porter Novelli International

Porter Novelli International is a PR and lobby company. It is part of the Omnicom Group.

History

According to the company website "Porter Novelli International was created in 1996 by two international public relations leaders, Bob Druckenmiller and Peter Hehir, who had a vision of the first, true multinational, multicultural public relations firm capable of delivering best-in-class service to clients in all major world markets."

"Bob Druckenmiller had co-founded Porter Novelli in the U.S. in the 1970s and built it into a North American public relations powerhouse. Peter Hehir had founded Countrywide Communications Group in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and, after building it into one of the top public relations firms in Europe, allied with Porter Novelli in the late 1980s to offer global service to both companies' major clients," the website states.

In a listing on its website of PR companies with a crisis management capability, the American Meat Institute described Porter Novelli's US expertise as including "product recalls, tampering, environmental and natural disasters, regulatory and legislative issues, labor and factory incidents as well attacks from advocacy groups at the national as well as the local level."

"Porter Novelli is a national, full-service communications firm of over 500 professionals with offices in Washington, New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Miami. Porter Novelli is the flagship agency of Porter Novelli International, with offices in 81 cities and 40 countries," it stated. [1]

Porter Novelli and climate change

Porter Novelli helped promote the U.S. Business Roundtable's "Climate RESOLVE" program, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. Climate RESOLVE was created to encourage companies to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, responding to George W. Bush's call for a voluntary 18 percent reduction of emissions by 2012 and attempting to undermine an international treaty on GHG.

The Climate RESOLVE campaign kicked off on September 23, 2004 with ads in the Washington Post and Roll Call to be followed by "one-pagers" for "Congressional aides, environmental officials and reporters to keep them abreast of efforts to control greenhouse gas."

Climate RESOLVE is also hosting a two-day "GHG Management Workshop," featuring a talk by White House Council on Environmental Quality chair James Connaughton. The Business Roundtable says 70 percent of its members have signed up for Climate RESOLVE. "They are eager to avoid the mandated cuts that are going into effect in much of the world under the Kyoto Protocol, the pending international treaty of global warming," O'Dwyer's writes.[2]

External links

• Nicholas Zamiska, "Food-Pyramid Frenzy: Lobbyists Fight to Defend Sugar, Potatoes and Bread In Recommended U.S. Diet," Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2004. (Porter Novelli wins USDA contract to redesign the Food Pyramid, worth at least $1.6 million in the first year. The firm designed the original pyramid in 1991.)
• http://www.porternovelli.com/pnwebsite/pnwebsite.nsf/WWA_Reputation
• American Meat Institute, "Public Relations Firms With Crisis Management Capabilities, accessed February 8, 2004.
• "PN helps BR on global warming", O'Dwyers PR Daily, September 22, 2004.