CCI in association with the
MA in Corporate Communication
and
Baruch College/CUNY present

A CCI Executive Briefing ...
Lessons from the Center of the Financial Meltdown

The last two years have been extraordinarily volatile for corporate communicators, particularly for those in the financial sector. In the eye of the storm has been AIG - American International Group — a company deemed too important to the world's financial sector to fail. Navigating AIG's corporate communication through this tortuous period has been Nick Ashooh. Imagine what he had to face:

• Lehman's demise and the failure of exotic derivative instruments, threatening to take AIG down along with major Wall Street players and financial institutions with similar addresses across the globe.
• the partial take-over by the U.S. government — the American tax payer now it's major shareholder
• a global employee workforce in a state of shock, workers not only concerned about their livelihood, but also their physical safety
• shareholder losses and ensuing anger
• the stress on AIG's healthy insurance businesses from concerned customers and regulators executive long-term contracts under Congressional attack in response to public rage about bonuses
• the slow, and continuing dissolution and restructuring of the once American success story, AIG, while it's former Wall Street partners recover and prosper the defection of senior executives
• the management of corporate communication through CEO turnovers — 4 in his tenure

and that's not all ...

What tactics and strategies served his constituencies best? How did he manage under constant crisis? What could he influence, what could he not? As he looks back, what prepared him for these challenges? What surprised him most? What will he carry with him professionally as he moves on from these arduous years of his career?

Nick Ashooh, who was named Vice President, Corporate Affairs for Alcoa Inc. in January 2010, will join us to contribute his experience and insights to our professional discussion.

About the Speaker
Currently, as VP, Corporate Affairs at Alcoa, Nick Ashooh is responsible for global communications, government affairs, community relations and the Alcoa Foundation. As SVP, Communications at AIG, he was responsible for corporate and employee communications, publications, advertising and global branding, media and public relations, marketing communications and the AIG archive. He was previously VP of Corporate Communication for American Electric Power, one of America's largest electric utilities where he also served as Executive Director for their foundation. Earlier Ashooh served as VP, Communications and Government Relations at Niagara Mohawk Power Corp and as VP, Corporate Communications for Paramount Communications Inc., a global entertainment and publishing concern. Ashooh also directed corporate communications for Public Service of New Hampshire, the state's largest utility during the licensing and construction of the Seabrook nuclear power plant and during that company's bankruptcy filing and reorganization. He is a member and past chairman of The Wisemen, one of the oldest public relations associations in America, the Civilian Public Affairs Committee of the United States Military Academy, and the Arthur W. Page Society. He was a board member of the Page Society and the Institute of Public Relations and is a past chairman of the Public Relations Seminar. He is an honors graduate of Marquette University's College of Journalism.

A CCI Symposium on Reputation ...
Hosted by:
Pfizer Inc.

Save the date! Details to be announced.

Conference on Corporate Communication 2010

The three-day conference serves as a bridge between practitioners and scholars, providing a collegial environment in an historic setting to exchange ideas and information on relevant issues facing the corporate communication profession. Speakers from industry and universities gather from across the globe with twenty countries represented in 2009.

Of particular interest in 2010 are papers and research that investigate the evolving relationships between corporation and stakeholders in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. We are interested in new practices, relationships, thinking, and attitudes created by the shifting and evolving models for business and media. We are actively interested in applied corporate communication and implications for practice; and concepts, frameworks, and theories that further the practice of corporate communication.

For more information visit the Conference page of this website. Thank you.