Edward Howard (public relations firm)

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Edward Howard
Type	Private
Founded	Cleveland, Ohio, 1925
Headquarters	Cleveland, Ohio
Key people	Kathy Cupper Obert, CEO; Wayne Hill, President; Don Hohmeier, Executive Vice President; Nora Jacobs, Executive Vice President; Mark Grieves, Executive Vice President
Industry	Public relations
Products	Strategic communication consulting services including public relations, marketing communications,investor relations, crisis communications, reputation management, public affairs, social media & online communications and graphic design.
Employees	45
Website	www.edwardhoward.com

Edward Howard is an Ohio-based public relations, investor relations, marketing communications and graphic design firm that opened in 1925.^[1] It is the nation’s longest-established independent public relations firm and is 100 percent employee owned.^[1]

The firm has long been highly regarded for its expertise in public relations, marketing communications, media relations, crisis communications, reputation management, investor relations, public/government affairs, graphic design and video production, and more recently, for its leadership in social media and interactive online communications.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 History 1.1 1925 - 1950 1.2 1950 - 1970 1.3 1970 – 2000 2 Present operations 3 Recognition 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] 1925 - 1950

The company was founded in 1925 by Edward Howard II,^[1] then a young employee who had served as an advertising manager for The Cleveland Trust Company. Among other duties, he edited Cleveland Trust's employee publication and promoted the sale of liberty bonds to help raise finances for World War I through propaganda posters at bank branch offices. Previously, Edward Howard II had worked as a police and sports reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and had obtained a year of law school education. With $400 in start-up capital, the support of his young wife Claire McMurray Howard, and two clients, he began a new career in the fledgling field of public relations.

Over the next 29 years, he established and expanded the firm beyond its original two clients – a stock brokerage and a bank (Cleveland Trust) – to include leading organizations such as Hanna Mining Co., Cleveland Graphite Bronze (later Clevite) and the Homestead resort in Hot Springs, Virginia. In the meantime, wife Claire McMurray Howard became a prominent columnist with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, penning a column titled "Good Morning," from 1936 until 1965. In 1941, the J.B. Lippincott Company published Claire's first book, And Beat Him When He Sneezes,^[2] a collection of her columns that appeared in The Plain Dealer. This book later became the basis for Claire's national radio show on NBC Radio.

[edit] 1950 - 1970

Edward Howard II's three sons, Edward Howard III, James T. Howard, and Nathanial R. (Nate) Howard all worked in the agency. The Cleveland Clinic, Eaton Corporation, Lubrizol, Reliance Electric, White Motor, and Pickands Mather Co. were all important clients during the 1950s and 1960s.

Eldest son, Edward Howard III, would became chief executive officer in 1954 when founder Edward Howard passed away of a second heart attack. Middle son James Howard, became chief executive office just seven years later in 1961 when his brother Edward Howard III moved to Sydney, Australia to form an Edward Howard branded public relations consulting business there.

James Howard focused the firm heavily on both investor relations and political work. In 1967, the company published the nation’s first timely disclosure manual for publicly traded companies. The agency was hired by Richard Nixon^[3] in 1968 to consult on his candidacy for president of the United States of America. In 1969, Edward Howard acquired three entities of Selvage & Lee, forming Selvage, Lee & Howard and adding offices in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.. That transaction demerged just 27 months later, and Selvage & Lee merged with Farley Manning to form Manning, Selvage & Lee in 1972.

[edit] 1970 – 2000

In 1970, the company bought back the stock held by members of the Howard family, naming John T. (Jack) Bailey as president. Under Bailey’s direction, Edward Howard provided crisis communications consulting work to Oglebay Norton Company during the tragic 1975 sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. It created the New Cleveland Campaign, one of the nation's earliest economic development marketing programs,^{[citation needed]} and in 1980, Edward Howard handled media relations work for the Jimmy Carter-Ronald Reagan presidential debate in Cleveland.

Bailey served as the firm’s top executive for 15 years until he retired as chairman and chief executive officer in 1986 and was succeeded by Stanley L. Ulchaker. Davis B. Young joined the firm shortly thereafter in 1987 and teamed with Ulchaker to lead the firm and serve as its president throughout the 1990s. In 1996, Young authored Building Your Company’s Good Name,^[4] a book on corporate reputation management published by the American Management Association.

An Akron, Ohio office was added in 1989 with the acquisition of David A. Meeker & Associates; this office was merged into the Cleveland office in 2002. The Columbus, Ohio office opened in 1991 as a start-up operation. In 1992, the Dayton, Ohio office was added through the acquisition of Winslow Chappell, Inc.

Well-known Edward Howard clients during the 1980s and 1990s included Rubbermaid, Progressive Insurance, Major League Baseball, Rockwell International, AT&T Wireless Services, Target Corporation, Cleveland Cavaliers, Invacare, Charter One and Revco Drug Stores.

[edit] Present operations

Upon Ulchaker’s retirement in 2000, a new management team assumed responsibility for the firm. It presently consists of chairman and chief executive officer Kathy Cupper Obert; president Wayne R. Hill; and executive vice presidents Donald Hohmeier , Nora Jacobs and Mark Grieves.

While the agency's work is spread nationally and internationally, the company is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio and has wholly owned offices in Columbus and Dayton. Edward Howard is also a member of Pinnacle Worldwide^[1], an organization of independently-owned public relations agencies with more than 60 offices in 36 countries.

Well-known clients of Edward Howard in more recent years include organizations such as Wal-Mart, Sherwin-Williams, Nokia, The Hoover Company, Dirt Devil, Invisible Fence, Huffy, Kidde, BP, Glimcher, AEP Ohio, Cleveland Indians, and the Greater Cleveland Partnership. Publicly held Cedar Fair, operator of Cedar Point and numerous other amusement parks, remains the agency’s single longest standing client relationship, dating back to the late 1960s, more than 40 years.

[edit] Recognition

Edward Howard remains a highly regarded agency throughout the nation.^{[citation needed]} The firm is the recipient of 22 Silver Anvils – the highest award of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) – Edward Howard has garnered more than any other Ohio-based public relations firm.^{[citation needed]}

The most recent Silver Anvil was awarded in 2006 for the company's work in behalf of the Greater Cleveland Partnership/Defense Finance and Accounting Service. The campaign not only saved 1,200 existing jobs in Cleveland but was responsible for adding 500 more.^[5] The U.S. Government's Base Realignment and Closure Commissioners overturned the Pentagon’s recommendation to close Cleveland's Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) base. Edward Howard was also awarded PRSA's first-ever "Best of Silver Anvil" Award for its reputation management work on behalf of Revco Drug Stores during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Revco, then the nation’s largest drugstore chain, had gone private in Wall Street's leveraged buyout craze of the 1980s, a decision which ultimately led to one of the most prominent and contentious chapter 11 filings of the period. Edward Howard's public relations work on behalf of the chain helped restore vendor confidence, ensure positive media coverage, retain tens of thousands of employees, and stave off numerous hostile takeover attempts.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Company website