Developed and produced community relations tour for New Jersey’s largest electric company coinciding with plant openings and ground breaking construction ceremonies in several states throughout the U.S. FMI strategy included an event to integrate the communities propensity for large barbeques, picking the high school as a location and organizing a ceremony for the utility to make a large contribution to the community school district.

Employee owned business corporations were threatened with a change in their tax status. FMI developed and implemented a series of media events and press conferences around the country in key congressional districts to extol the virtues of ESOP’s and the deleterious effects of a change. Events included soon to be Bush budget director Rob Portman and future Maryland senator, then Congressman Ben Cardin. Result: proposed tax change was never passed.

Photo: Representative and future Bush Director Of Office Management and Budget Rob Portman participating in an ESOP media event at the Wallingford Coffee factory in Cincinnati, Ohio