Craig Parsons, Strategic Communications (Los Angeles, CA USA)

Craig Parsons has more than 45 years of corporate communications and financial relations experience, encompassing various corporate, investor, public affairs, marketing, and advertising responsibilities. His work for a diverse range of public and private companies has included media, crisis strategy, litigation support, friendly and hostile mergers, communication audits, shareholder, and internal communications. He has represented companies in a wide span of industries – entertainment, technology, consumer, finance, health care, and nonprofits, among other areas. He established Parsons Communications in 2002, providing senior level communications, crisis and media-related consulting for diverse clientele including law firms; an academic institution; a labor guild; an investment advisory firm; and nonprofit organizations. He also initiated effective media campaigns as litigation support for several high-profile legal cases, including the People of California in a multi-billion-dollar class action suit; Vidal Sassoon; Marvel Entertainment the Ladd Company; and two significant “whistleblower” actions. Parsons’ clients have also included the Motion Picture and Television Fund; the Screen Actors Guild; Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA); Veterans Park Conservancy; and Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science, among others. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., responsible for developing and coordinating media, investor, and internal communications on behalf of this global entertainment company. Prior to MGM, he was a principal/partner for 18 years with Pondel Parsons & Wilkinson, instrumental in its growth as one of the foremost corporate communications and investor relations firms in the country. The agency’s client list included Amgen, IMAX, City National Bank, Oakley, K2 Corp., Chicago Title, Skadden Arps, Boston Consulting Group, the Keck Foundation, KPMG/Peat Marwick, Neutrogena, Trust Company of the West (TCW), and Republic Corporation, among others. Parsons’ professional and civic affiliations have included serving as president and board member of the Los Angeles chapters of the American Cancer Society and National Investor Relations Institute, as a director of Children Now, a national child advocacy organization, and the Society of Professional Journalists. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California, and formerly served as president of the professional alumni group for the USC/Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.