Key Career Accomplishments
He has led issues and crisis teams that coordinated the strategies and responses for legal issues involving litigation, regulatory, transactional and legislative policy; 10 Congressional and Parliament hearings; cybersecurity and privacy incidents for hundreds of millions of consumers; more than 100,000 layoffs; numerous senior executive leadership changes; environmental contamination; Chapter 11 and 7 filings; class actions, patent and many other lawsuits; significant earnings and financial events; and ~50 mergers and acquisitions, divestitures totaling over $100 billion.
SonicWall - Repositioning the brand in a crowded industry / Bringing partner accountability to market development funds / Improving lead generations
In his first CMO role, he revamped SonicWall’s marketing function, significantly improving its lead generation, revenue pipeline, partner program, digital marketing and awareness.
Lead Gen: He improved lead volume (+18%), MQLs (+11%) and opportunities (+52%); lowered the CPL (-38%); and, improved lead quality significantly by increasing lead conversions to opportunities (+91%).
Digital Marketing: He improved SEM conversions (+906%); cost/conversion (-88%); conversion rate (+1,716%); and his programmatic improvements included CTR (+340%); CPC (-79%) and CPCon (-71%) during his tenure.
Social & Traditional Media: He oversaw an increase in followers (+57%), engagement (196%) and share of voice (+31%) while boosted traditional (+64%) and business media (+134%) coverage in his first year. The latter jumped another 86% his second year.
Partner Program: He helped drive a 16.5% increase in the number of global channel partners.
He also reconstructed the company’s global marketing development fund (MDF) program which resulted in better partner accountability, tracking and higher revenue generation; repositioned the brand around the idea of “Boundless Cybersecurity”; and, met with and briefed regulators, members of Congress, their staffs and gov’t agency leaders.
PNC Financial Services - Modernizing a communications function / Tying PR activities to revenue / Easing new market entry / Integrating communications
Transformed and modernized PNC’s Corporate Communications by driving better integration across the bank, which helped boost its positive awareness across traditional (+200%) and social media (+255%). He introduced integrated communications with the LOBs and marketing around product launches to develop campaigns that were more holistic and had revenue and business goals. He also developed or relaunched numerous initiatives including the CSR and Annual Reports, the American Dream Index, measurement program, social media, the intranet, the brand journalism site (PNC POV), employee and crisis comms, sponsorships, research programs, and influencer and content management strategies, et al. In 2017, he and his team launched one of the industry’s first influencer campaigns, a 12-episode YouTube campaign with the Jurgy’s to support the Christmas Price Index. The 2017 campaign generated hundreds of thousands of views and engagements and generated 807 news stories through the holiday, a 30% increase over the previous year.
Entrust - Securing shareholder approval for the sale of the company / M&A
Guided a NASDAQ-listed company through its sale to a private equity firm that required a 2/3rd majority shareholder vote, while neutralizing a board member that publicly opposed the sale by providing media access to all board emails and rallying institutional shareholders against the deal.
Edelman Dallas - Restoring to profitability / Growing the business / Improving employee satisfaction
As the General Manager of Edelman Dallas, he restored the office to profitability, increasing revenues 2.5 times and led it to the highest employee satisfaction and citizenship scores in the U.S.
Sally Beauty - Creating a deadly virus employee policy on the fly / Restoring calm and building trust after employees were exposed to Ebola
In 2014, David and a colleague were hired to help Sally Beauty, who had two employees exposed to Ebola Patient #1 on a flight from Cleveland to Dallas. One of the employees unknowingly came to work and was exposed to an unknown number of employees, while another attended a global employee offsite at a hotel in Dallas. We worked to develop a deadly disease policy for employees that didn’t exist at the time and counseled the c-suite team on best practices and employee resources to provide to protect employees from the disease and demonstrate how important the well-being of their employees and their families was. Additionally, we crafted all of the communications from the CEO and other executives to all the relevant internal and external stakeholders to ensure they were transparent and factual throughout the episode. Sally Beauty was praised by outsiders for their transparent response.
Mercy Ships - Raising funds for a non-profit / Improving brand awareness
Led the team responsible for maximizing a “60 Minutes” segment profiling Mercy Ships, a global charity operating hospital ships in developing nations. The goal was to help them activate their donor base; identify and outreach to new audiences to help them generate awareness; raise funds to build a new hospital ship; and cultivate new donors and volunteers, with a special focus on engaging and activating a younger audience. The team helped raise a combined total of approximately ~$40 million, and enlisted hundreds of volunteers. The team also generated multiple broadcast interviews in target markets for Mercy Ships Founder Don Stephens, as well as 147 media clips and more than 192 million impressions.
U.S. Cellular - Strategically differentiating a second-tier brand to take market share against top tier competitors
Led the strategic positioning and launch of U.S. Cellular’s Belief Project, which radically altered their business model by elevating the wireless experience, removing many of the obstacles that customers have, while creating human relationships, not contractual ones. The program surpassed their migration goals, increased average revenue per user, and won the Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement of the Year Award for North America.
Citibank - Changing a culture / Aligning values / Improving employee & customer satisfaction
The financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 weighed heavily on Citibank employees’ morale, shareholders’ belief in the bank’s future and public sentiment. The bank needed to create hope and optimism for the future among employees and customers. To address this, David and his team launched Citi Forward to create a “new” Citi culture, one where employees were proud to work and with whom customers loved doing business.
Leader-Led Communications Strategy. Immersed the CEO’s top 12 direct reports and top 100 leaders of the organization in Citi Forward. They were introduced to Citi’s differentiating strategy of customer centricity, its “sweet spot” customer segment called Generations Forward, an attitudinal approach to traditional demographics, Citi’s strategic path forward and a new set of values.
Outside-In Learning. To immerse leaders in Citi’s new definition of customer centricity, experts from the Disney Institute, Hewlett-Packard and Pandora presented and fielded questions from leaders on how their companies have successfully placed customers in the center of everything they do. IDEO customer experience design expert also inspired leaders to put themselves in the shoes of customers.
Use of Emotionally Compelling Video. To bring to life key concepts and content of Citi Forward, videos were produced to communicate the need for change, dimensionalize Generations Forward, and put the face of Citi employees on the concept of SHINE (simple, human, inspiring, new and enriching).
Collaborative Exercises that Applied Learning. In two sessions, leaders applied what they learned about Generations Forward and how to engage their organizations in Citi Forwarrd. In the first, leaders were teamed up with Publicis creative directors and Xplane visual illustrators to tackle a marketing brief and produce a short video designed to appeal to the customer. Next, Xplane partnered with Citi’s leadership development team to visually illustrate barriers and opportunities to the successful execution of Citi Forward.
Manager and Employee Engagement. Leaders led three subsequent meetings with 3,200 managers to introduce Citi Forward, create a change-ready culture (change management curriculum), and Lead the Way
to a New Citi (team action planning and manager preparation). In January 2010, the 3,200 managers will introduce more than 30,000 frontline employees to Citi Forward in a 90-minute session.Ongoing Engagement and Active Listening. To sustain momentum and deliver the promise that leadership values the input and ideas of employees, an interactive Web 2.0 site was developed, and an ideation brainstorm tool enabled to allow employees to speak their mind in a live “jam session” setting.
Following the leadership launch, 100% of leaders said they had a clear understanding of Citi Forward. 96% understood how to apply Citi Forward within their business group. 95% understood their role in the process. 91% felt equipped to carry Citi Forward to their groups. And 91% said their confidence in the future of Citi was stronger now than it was before the event. This led to a 6% improvement for Citigroup customer satisfaction and a tie for first place with Wells Fargo, a long-time leader in customer satisfaction according to the 2011 American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Medtronic - Addressing the cybersecurity/medical concerns of doctors, patients, policy makers and regulators
Led the team responsible for helping Medtronic respond to the Department of Homeland Security, the Food & Drug Administration, the Government Accountability Office, Federal Communication Commission, the U.S. Congress and other countries government inquiries after a security researcher demonstrated how to transmit wireless commands to hack wireless medical devices including insulin pumps and pacemakers. The team was able to satisfactorily address the concerns of doctors, patients, policy makers and regulators and leverage the latter two to calm concerns.
Riddell - Educating policy makers, regulators and parent concerns / Protecting and solidifying a brand’s reputation throughout crisis / Congressional hearings
Led the work for helmet-maker, Riddell, as they responded to Congressional, Consumer Product Safety Commission and Federal Trade Commission investigations regarding “misleading safety claims and deceptive practices” among helmet manufacturers and refurbishers. He also helped prepare the CEO for his appearance before the House Committee on the Judiciary at a hearing on ‘‘Legal Issues Relating to Football Head Injuries.’’ We worked to position Riddell as the safest helmet maker and helped them clear their name regarding deceptive practices.
Edelman Shanghai - Growing the business / Improving employee satisfaction
Was the first person at Edelman China to extend business back to the U.S. since its founding in 1994 and led new business teams that won J&J’s Band-Aid, Stay-Free, Carefree, OB, Neutrogena and Clean & Clear; Wal-Mart; AMO globally; Microsoft Windows Live; Great London Financial; Hershey, Zurich Financial; Continental Automotive Systems in China, India, Hong Kong and Japan; B&Q, etc.
In his first eight months, he took the Edelman Shanghai office that had lost its general manager, half of its staff, 1/3rd of its revenue and clients, and was losing $65k/mo. and made it profitable for the year. His office had the highest employee satisfaction of all Edelman’s offices in China and only failed to retain two employees during his tenure in China, where 30% annual turnover is considered average.
Zurich Financial - Navigating the Chinese political system / Saving an investment
Helped Zurich Financial navigate the Chinese political system and the Chinese Insurance Regulatory Commission as they partnered with Baosteel Group to remove the Chairman of China New Life Insurance Company and elect a new board of directors for the company in which they were a major international investor.
Abbott Medical Optics (AMO) - Global recall / Managing foreign regulators, customers and retailers
Led the team responsible for Abbott Medical Optic’s 13-country recall of 2.9 million units of eye care Solutions around the globe in 2006. The project involved coordinating 28 Edelman and AMO offices from Shanghai, China, developing the communications strategies for all stakeholders as well as the recall processes and advertising, and working closely with government regulators, retailers and customers in each of the affected countries,
P&G Oral Care - Overcoming Incorrect Regulator Conclusions / Improving testing standards in India
Led the team responsible for helping a multi-national company introduce a new toothpaste which contained a stannous fluoride system formulation in India. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) testing system mistakenly labeled stannous a heavy metal lead so we developed the risk mitigation and engagement plan to get the BIS to change their testing methods by leveraging the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), two advanced Indian labs (CSIR and SIR) and Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences & Research University. Once the standard was changed, we educated the 28 FDAs in the country as well as 25 gov’t labs that test products.
JPMorgan Chase - Leveraging Public Relations to Drive Revenue and Business Relationships
To address the sales teams need to develop new co-branded credit card relationship, David led the cross-functional team that built an integrated communication, marketing and sales program targeting specific industries (retail, automotive and hospitality) and the top companies in each that the sales team was targeting. The program involved targeting c-suite decision makers (primarily CMOs and CFOs) through multiple channels and communication vehicles (e.g.. media relations, speaking events, direct mail, influencers, advertising, WOM, road shows, white papers, leverage industry research, trend reports insights, etc.) that were critical to drive awareness (brand ID), knowledge (image), understanding (contrast) and acceptance (reinforce the need/buy). The program was responsible for driving JPM’s co-branded credit card relationship with Regal Entertainment Group (the largest theater operator in the US at the time), Sprint and many others.
JPMorgan Chase - Building a Public Relations Function / Leveraging integrated communications to drive revenue and increase co-brand partners
Built the JPMorgan Chase public relations function for the credit card business from the ground up. He and his team launched a product placement program, developed an integrated competitive positioning program to pre-condition select industries for the sales teams, created issues/reputation management and analyst relations programs, and introduced a measurement program.
He directed public relations, partner communications and the public relations agency, and also led internal and partner efforts to create co-branded programs for some of the world’s leading brands including Starbucks, Disney, Sony, Amazon.com. The programs drove consumer awareness of their products, generated accounts and spend, and appealed to prospective partners. David served as the national spokesperson and worked closely with business units and sales to oversee the communications to prospects and 1,000+ partners. He built the groups from scratch and led the teams responsible for the industry’s two most visible credit card launches:
the Starbucks Card Duetto Visa, which garnered 200+ million media impressions over nine months, 35,000 apps in the first week and calls from 20+ companies looking to create a payment product with Chase. The launch earned three PR industry awards and was named one of Business Week’s “Best Products of 2003;” and,
Chase credit cards with “blink,” which generated 300+ million media impressions and 2,700+ stories in 204 DMAs. The launch earned three PR and advertising awards and was named to PRWeek’s list of “10 Product Launches You Couldn’t Miss in 2005.”
Nortel Networks - Using communications to support corporate growth / Repositioning the brand / Market cap save
At Nortel, he helped lead the transformation of the communications strategy that boosted its worldwide awareness, sales and market cap in the most explosive growth period in the company’s history. He led the strategic global communications team, developing and executing strategies for corporate issues, product marketing, public affairs, investor relations and employee communications. He also served as the global spokesman and directed the day-to-day activities of Nortel’s PR agency. The team was named PR Week's Corporate PR Team of the Year for 2001, and according to PR Week, his crisis comms work in Jan. 2000 “amounted to a market cap ‘save’ of US$31.96 billion.”
Nortel Networks - Company implosion
When the telecom bubble burst, David found himself at the helm of Global Communications as the company rode a downward spiral from 8th most valuable company in the world to US$0.49 cent stock. During this time, he led the communications for numerous negative events including
Stock Declines, missed earnings and other financial issues- The stock being dropped from the S&P 500 and 100 index (July 02) and being downgraded to junk bond status by Moody’s and S&P (April 02); Missed earnings announcements (Oct. 00, April, July, Oct. 01; Jan., April 02) and earnings warnings/changes of guidance (Feb., March, June, Oct. and Dec. 01; April, May, Aug. and Sept. 02); at the time, the world's largest write-down in history ($19.2 billion) in 2001; a reverse stock split and second change of guidance in a month on the same day (Sept. 25, 02) former CEO (John Roth) sold all of his NT holding (Aug. 02).
M&A, divestitures, product line shutdowns and outsourcing - After leading 12 acquisitions, including two of the three largest acquisitions in the company’s history, he then helped the company shut down ~10 product lines and divest or outsource 12 different pieces of its business.
Credit facilities, Equity offerings, Shelf registrations and Debt offerings - Terminated US$1.1175 billion in credit facilities that matured in April 03 (Dec. 02) and US$1.5 billion in credit facilities that matured in Dec. 02 (Oct. 02); Offering of equity units and common shares for up to US$1.475 billion (June 02); filed a shelf registration statement for the potential sale of up to an aggregate US$2.5 billion of various types of securities (May 02); drew down US$1.75 billion in credit facilities and then amended and paid back the facilities the next day (April 02); US$1.8 billion in convertible senior notes (Aug, 01); US$1.5 billion debt offering (Feb. 01); US$2 billion in credit facilities (June 01).
Executive resignations - The resignation of 21 senior executives over two years including the CFO (Terry Hungle) being forced to resign for not following NT trading guidelines followed 24 hours later by earnings warning at financial analyst conference (Feb. 02); the departure of CEO candidate for medical reasons (2001); the surprise resignation of the CEO (John Roth) in early 2002 which triggered announcing our CFO as CEO later in the day.
Layoffs - He handled the announcements of mass layoffs as the company went from over 130,000 employees and contractors to 35,000 over the course of two years.
Employee Issues - He handled numerous employee crises’ including an employee who have sex on commercial flight that made international news; bomb threats; the murder of an employee and an employee that murdered someone; the murder of a female executive that made international news and became a Netflix documentary in 2018; the death of employees in airplane crashes.
Nortel Networks - Change in ownership stake / Stock divestiture
Helped develop and direct the global communications strategies for the world’s largest divestiture of stock (BCE distributed 38 percent of their Nortel Networks holdings – 500 million shares -- in Jan. 2000).
Nortel Networks - Highlighting competitor corrupt practices / Opposition research / Generating sales vs. our competitors
David was approached by Chief Technology Officer Bill Hawe to help surreptitiously expose the corrupt practices of senior executives at pre-IPO telecom start-ups who were giving their critical customer’s senior executives stock and options or the option to buy at the low offering price after bought their telecom gear. The executives were then able to sell their “friends-and-family” shares for millions on the day of the IPO or at a later date. David’s work resulted in numerous stories including in Fortune magazine, the Wall Street Journal and The Industry Standard. According to Hawe, his work highlighting the abuses halted approximately $11 billion in sales to various startups and generated an additional $7.5 billion in optical equipment sales for Nortel over a two-year period.
Sun Microsystems - C-suite positioning / Brand awareness / Pushing Congress and regulators to take on an industry foe / Congressional hearings
Positioned Sun Microsystems’ senior executives and technologies to heighten the company’s domestic and international media visibility at various events including the World Economic Forum in 1999. Chamberlin also helped develop Sun’s strategic messaging for the DOJ’s case against Microsoft and various policy issues and was responsible for helping coordinated and run JavaOne, an annual conference to bring together Java developers from around the world to discuss Java technologies.
Iridium LLC - Global brand and product launch for a new kind of phone
Planned, implemented, branded, and developed the messaging for the commercial activation of Iridium LLC, the first truly global handheld telephone service. The campaign resulted in countless stories in media markets around the world.
Telefonica - Executive positioning and brand awareness to ease market entry
Coordinated the planning, implementation, messaging, and positioning of a long-term campaign to raise the media visibility of Juan Villalonga, CEO of Telefonica. The campaign included major media events and speeches at high-profile speaking engagements around the United States.
American Legion - Working to pass a Constitutional amendment / Celebrity, VIP and policymaker endorsement / Congressional hearings
Coordinated the planning, implementation, and messaging of a year-long national media campaign to boost favorable coverage of the proposed flag protection amendment to the Constitution on behalf of the American Legion before and after the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in July 1998. David and the team recruited Tommy Lasorda, John Schneider, Sen. Harrison Schmitt, Gen. Patrick Brady, and other to push for the amendment.
American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) - Memorial design and location approval / Fundraising / Celebrity & VIP endorsements
His work for the ABMC helped get their National World War II Memorial design concept approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission. The team leveraged Stephen Ambrose, William Manchester, Tom Hanks and many others in a nationwide media campaign that resulted in extensive nationwide coverage and helped raise a large portion of the $195 million needed from entirely private donations.
National Liver Coalition and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) - Ending preferential treatment for liver transplants
He worked with the National Liver Coalition and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to develop a national media campaign to end the preferential treatment given to the famous and infamous on the waiting list for liver transplants. He helped enlist doctors, patients and policymakers to ultimately stall a federal department’s plans for new national regulations governing the sensitive organ waiting list.
Hoffmann-LaRoche - Working with regulators to keep them from reclassifying a prescription sleeping aid
His commentary to the Food and Drug Administration about Hoffmann-LaRoche’s drug, Rohypnol - also known as the “date rape drug” - kept it from being rescheduled as a Class I drug similar to heroin.
Burson-Marsteller - Building a new service and revenue stream
Helped build and then led Burson Marsteller’s North American Writer’s Network, an elite group of writers, including two Pulitzer Prize winners, that wrote speeches, opeds, white papers, etc. for clients.