Conover + Company Affiliates:
ROBERT L. O’ROURKE, Senior Public Relations Consultant
Robert (Bob) O’Rourke is vice president of public relations for the California Institute of Technology and a senior public relations consultant to Conover + Company. He has more than 40 years of experience in public relations and communications. Prior to the California Institute of Technology, he held public relations positions at Boston University, the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. During his nearly 20 years at Caltech, the Office of Public Relations has been awarded more than 30 medals for its public relations programs and publications, a first for the Institute and the department. Bob was promoted to vice president for public relations in September 2001, a new position at the Institute. From February 2002 to October 2002, he was also appointed acting vice president for development and alumni relations.
LISA A. COHEN.
Founder / President, Momentum Partners, LLC.
Lisa is the founder and president of Momentum Partners, LLC. A creative thinker adept at developing innovative marketing and management strategies and solutions, Lisa is goal and action-oriented with a proven track record of achievement. Lisa is focused on developing opportunities for sustainable growth, and her creative talents are supported by a strong analytical skill set.
Lisa’s diverse background includes nearly twenty years of business experience in start-up, corporate, and professional services firms. Lisa’s expertise includes marketing strategy and implementation, business analysis and strategy, relationship management, writing and communication, distribution and business development, and product development and management. She is experienced in understanding markets, products, risk factors, competitive environments, and opportunities for growth. Lisa’s style is collaborative, interactive, and engaging in managing and working with individuals and teams. She is a motivational leader with perspective informed by sense of humor.
Lisa’s corporate roles include Managing Director and Senior Vice President, Product Management, for Evergreen Investments. Lisa also held several senior level positions with John Hancock Financial Services including Director of Institutional Product Management, John Hancock Funds, and Director of Marketing & Communication, Defined Contribution Products and Services. At John Hancock, Lisa created the John Hancock / Gallup survey, which became a nationally recognized investor behavior research program. Lisa also spent time in New Orleans with Howard, Weill, Labouisse & Friedrichs, an energy investment bank and a division of Legg Mason.
BERNARD J. ROGAN,
Senior Communications Consultant
Bernie Rogan is an expert in communicating new ideas and gaining the support of opinion makers to support those initiatives and projects. His skills have been utilized by corporations as a consultant and as a corporate senior associate in the fields of real estate development, insurance, manufacturing, and government. Until his recent retirement from Shaw’s Supermarkets in New England, Bernie served as a spokesperson for he $4.5 billion subsidiary of J Sainsbury of London, England.
While at Shaw’s, Bernie was instrumental in the development of programs which introduced the company to new markets in underserved urban and inner city markets, facilitating the approvals and support for Shaw’s new and recaptured food retailing locations. An account of some of his successes in this area are recounted in the ICIC report, The Changing Models of Inner City Grocery Retailing.
Bernie now resides in Port St. Lucie, Florida and continues to service regional and national clients.
NICK B. MILLS, Media Trainer
Nick Mills is an international media trainer who has worked with presidents, prime ministers, and corporate and political leaders. He is an award-winning broadcaster, an author, and a professor of journalism at Boston University's highly-respected College of Communication.
After graduating from Boston University, Nick lived for two years in Bogota, Colombia, working as a Peace Corps Volunteer and helping to establish Colombia Educational Television.
As an officer in the U.S. Army, Nick produced documentary films on specialized weapons testing and led a combat photography team in Vietnam. His Vietnam experiences led to the publication of Combat Photographer (Boston Publishing/Time-Life Books, 1980).
Nick served as Field Director of the Afghan Media Project in Peshawar, Pakistan in 1986-88, and founded the Afghan Media Resource Center for coverage of the Afghan-Soviet conflict.
Nick returned to Boston University in 1988 to teach in the Journalism Department. He has taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in journalism, broadcast journalism, journalism history and principles, and journalism ethics. Nick served as director of Boston University British Programmes in London in 1998.
In addition, Nick has served as director of the Portuguese Journalism Program, which brings groups of Portuguese journalists to Boston University each summer for workshops and seminars. He has been a frequent advisor to the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, which brings mid-career professional people from developing countries to U.S. universities for a year of study and travel.
STEPHEN L. DAVIDOW
Stephen L. Davidow is principal of Davidow Communications, a national health care public relations consultancy based in the Chicago area. Stephen has extensive health care public relations experience and his efforts have garnered local, national, and international media attention for his clients and employers. In some cases, he's prevented coverage that could have been damaging. He has a strong track record in issues management and accomplishments in strategy, media relations, marketing, and product and service awareness.
Most recently, he was vice president, director of the public relations practice at Storandt Pann Margolis, the nation's leading hospital marketing communications firm.
Over the years, Stephen has represented a number of pharmaceutical, medical device and medical technology companies in addition to academic medical centers and hospitals, health care associations, health plans, and research organizations.
He has presented on crisis communications numerous times and other issues of interest to health care communicators for the Public Relations Society of America. Stephen has been quoted on DTC marketing and branding by Medill News Service and had his commentaries published in Modern Healthcare and U.S. News & World Report. He's a published author and policy analyst whose work on the use of cigarette excise taxes to fund health care for the uninsured appeared in BNA's Health Care Policy Report and was covered by the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, National Public Radio, Hospital & Health Networks, AM News, Bloomberg News Service, and the Associated Press. Earlier in his career, Stephen traveled to and examined health care in the former Soviet Union. His analysis was published in the Journal of Community Health and as a result he was asked to review a World Bank report on the state of Russian health care. He's done graduate studies in health policy at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy.
Stephen's clients come from nearly every area of the health care industry: pharmaceutical, medical device, health plan, research, public policy, provider and practitioner. He's held leading communications positions with Loyola University Health System, American Hospital Association, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Hill & Knowlton, Edelman, and Medical Society of the State of New York. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for excellence in public relations and serves on the board of the Public Relations Society of America's Health Academy. In addition, he organized the Academy's annual national strategy and public policy forum in Washington, D.C. Early in his career, Stephen was listed as one of Faulkner & Gray's Healthcare 100.
