Eric Dezenhall
Encyclopedia
Eric B. Dezenhall is an American crisis management
consultant, author
, and founder of Washington D.C.-based public relations
firm Dezenhall Resources. His aggressive tactics on behalf of his clients have made him both a target of criticism and a quoted pundit on crisis communications
.
and studied news media
and political science
at Dartmouth College
. Dezenhall worked briefly in President Ronald Reagan's White House
communications office
. After a four-year stint at Porter Novelli
, Dezenhall and boss Nick Nichols left to form Nichols-Dezenhall Communications Management Company in 1987. The company's name was shortened to Dezenhall Resources Ltd. in 2004 after Nichols retired in 2003. Dezenhall and fellow principal John Weber oversee offices in Washington DC, Sacramento, Los Angeles, London and Brussels.
firm Dezenhall Resources, which represents high-profile clients facing "crisis
, conflict, and controversy
." Dezenhall's published writing on public relations focuses on how a celebrity or corporation can successfully defend their reputation in the face of "a lawsuit, a sex scandal, a defective product, or allegations of insider trading
," among other crises.
/Public Interest Watch
, lawyers representing former Enron
CEO Jeffrey Skilling
, O'Melveny & Myers, Mark Geragos
(attorney for Michael Jackson
), and Eli Lilly and Company
; TIME
identified Procter & Gamble
and General Electric
; and The Hill
cited Community Financial Services Association of America
as clients of Dezenhall.
He was contracted by the Association of American Publishers
to run an up to half million dollar campaign against the open access movement. In a series of emails that were leaked to the journal Nature
, Dezenhall concedes that "it's hard to fight an adversary that manages to be both elusive and in possession of a better message: Free information," and suggests joining forces with think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute
in an attempt to persuade key players of the potential risks of unfiltered access. "Paint a picture of what the world would look like without peer-reviewed articles," he added. AAP CEO Patricia Schroeder
praised Dezenhall and told The Washington Post
that the association hired Dezenhall's firm when members realized they needed help. "We thought we were angels for a long time and we didn't need PR firms."
and novels. His non-fiction works include Nail 'em: Confronting High-Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Business and he co-authored Damage Control: Why Everything You Know About Crisis Management is Wrong.
Dezenhall's novels include Turnpike Flameout, Shakedown Beach, Money Wanders, Jackie Disaster, and Spinning Dixie.
of public relations
", and journalist Bill Moyers
, discussing Dezenhall's firm's involvement with the chemical industry
stated, "I consider [Dezenhall Resources] the Mafia
of the industry." Dezenhall has been criticized for being a "spin doctor" who lowers the quality of public debate
for the sake of protecting business interests. His effort on behalf of Exxon
to pressure the Internal Revenue Service
to revoke Greenpeace
's tax exempt status was condemned by environmental
advocate
s. His efforts on behalf of traditional publishers to combat open access to scientific research have been an ongoing source of controversy in the academic community.
Crisis management
Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. The study of crisis management originated with the large scale industrial and environmental disasters in the 1980's.Shrivastava, P....
consultant, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and founder of Washington D.C.-based public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm Dezenhall Resources. His aggressive tactics on behalf of his clients have made him both a target of criticism and a quoted pundit on crisis communications
Crisis communications
Crisis communication is sometimes considered a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation...
.
Career
Dezenhall grew up in New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and studied news media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
and political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
. Dezenhall worked briefly in President Ronald Reagan's White House
Reagan Administration
The United States presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989....
communications office
White House Communications Director
The White House Director of Communications, also known as Assistant to the President for Communications, is part of the senior staff of the President of the United States, and is responsible for developing and promoting the agenda of the President and leading its media campaign...
. After a four-year stint at Porter Novelli
Porter Novelli
Porter Novelli is a public relations firm that is part of Omnicom Group. Its original clients were primarily social causes and nonprofit organizations. Today, the company works in crisis management, health care, technology, corporate affairs, consumer marketing, and more. The company has...
, Dezenhall and boss Nick Nichols left to form Nichols-Dezenhall Communications Management Company in 1987. The company's name was shortened to Dezenhall Resources Ltd. in 2004 after Nichols retired in 2003. Dezenhall and fellow principal John Weber oversee offices in Washington DC, Sacramento, Los Angeles, London and Brussels.
Dezenhall Resources
Dezenhall is founder and CEO of public relationsPublic relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm Dezenhall Resources, which represents high-profile clients facing "crisis
Crisis
A crisis is any event that is, or expected to lead to, an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community or whole society...
, conflict, and controversy
Controversy
Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – "turned in an opposite direction," from contra – "against" – and vertere – to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn...
." Dezenhall's published writing on public relations focuses on how a celebrity or corporation can successfully defend their reputation in the face of "a lawsuit, a sex scandal, a defective product, or allegations of insider trading
Insider trading
Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...
," among other crises.
Clients
Although Dezenhall does not comment on clients and contracts, Business Week reported that Dezenhall had been hired by ExxonMobilExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
/Public Interest Watch
Public Interest Watch
Public Interest Watch was established in September 2002 by Mike Hardiman. The PIW website states that the group was created "in response to the growing misuse of charitable funds by nonprofit organizations and the lack of effort by government agencies to deal with the problem." In March 2006 the...
, lawyers representing former Enron
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
CEO Jeffrey Skilling
Jeffrey Skilling
Jeffrey Keith "Jeff" Skilling is the former president of Enron Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas. In 2006 he was convicted of multiple federal felony charges relating to Enron's financial collapse, and is currently serving a 24-year, four-month prison sentence at the Federal...
, O'Melveny & Myers, Mark Geragos
Mark Geragos
Mark John Geragos is an Armenian/ American criminal defense attorney who defended the musician Michael Jackson, actress Winona Ryder, politician Gary Condit, and Susan McDougal. He was also involved in the Whitewater scandal. He also represented Scott Peterson, in another trial that received...
(attorney for Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
), and Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
; TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
identified Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
and General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
; and The Hill
The Hill (newspaper)
The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....
cited Community Financial Services Association of America
Community Financial Services Association of America
The Community Financial Services Association of America is the national organization dedicated to advancing financial empowerment for consumers through small dollar, short-term loans...
as clients of Dezenhall.
He was contracted by the Association of American Publishers
Association of American Publishers
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP has more than 300 members, including most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly...
to run an up to half million dollar campaign against the open access movement. In a series of emails that were leaked to the journal Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
, Dezenhall concedes that "it's hard to fight an adversary that manages to be both elusive and in possession of a better message: Free information," and suggests joining forces with think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
in an attempt to persuade key players of the potential risks of unfiltered access. "Paint a picture of what the world would look like without peer-reviewed articles," he added. AAP CEO Patricia Schroeder
Patricia Schroeder
Patricia Nell Scott Schroeder , American politician, was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Colorado, serving from 1973 to 1997. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Colorado.- Early years :...
praised Dezenhall and told The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
that the association hired Dezenhall's firm when members realized they needed help. "We thought we were angels for a long time and we didn't need PR firms."
Writing
Dezenhall writes both non-fictionNon-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
and novels. His non-fiction works include Nail 'em: Confronting High-Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Business and he co-authored Damage Control: Why Everything You Know About Crisis Management is Wrong.
Dezenhall's novels include Turnpike Flameout, Shakedown Beach, Money Wanders, Jackie Disaster, and Spinning Dixie.
Criticism
Kevin McCauley from O'Dwyer's PR Report called Dezenhall "the pit bullPit bull
A Pit bull is any of several breeds of dog in the molosser breed group.Many jurisdictions that restrict pit bulls, including Ontario, Canada,, Miami, Florida, U.S...
of public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
", and journalist Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
, discussing Dezenhall's firm's involvement with the chemical industry
Chemical industry
The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
stated, "I consider [Dezenhall Resources] the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
of the industry." Dezenhall has been criticized for being a "spin doctor" who lowers the quality of public debate
Public debate
Public debate is a formal style of debate. Two teams of two compete through six rounds of argument, giving persuasive speeches on a particular topic.- Pre-Debate :...
for the sake of protecting business interests. His effort on behalf of Exxon
Exxon
Exxon is a chain of gas stations as well as a brand of motor fuel and related products by ExxonMobil. From 1972 to 1999, Exxon was the corporate name of the company previously known as Standard Oil Company of New Jersey or Jersey Standard....
to pressure the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
to revoke Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
's tax exempt status was condemned by environmental
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
advocate
Advocate
An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...
s. His efforts on behalf of traditional publishers to combat open access to scientific research have been an ongoing source of controversy in the academic community.