Gregory A. French

You name it, and I've probably done it or something like it. My experience includes internal and external communications at a Fortune 500 company; media relations, product publicity and crisis PR at large international public relations agencies; and marketing and book publishing at an influential Washington, DC-based trade association.

As a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, I started my career at the Chicago Medical Society, where I was managing editor of the organization's twice-monthly membership magazine. From there, I made the leap to Porter Novelli, one of the nation’s top-ten agencies. After nearly five years, I moved to Golin Harris, another top PR firm, and represented Bayer Aspirin and Abbott Laboratories. I led the team that supported Bayer during its 100th anniversary—a program which received numerous accolades—and during a period when the FDA approved several new indications for aspirin. After Golin Harris, I ran the book publishing and selling business, BuilderBooks.com, at the National Association of Homebuilders.

From NAHB, I moved to corporate communications at drugstore.com and Weyerhaeuser, where I was responsible for product PR, executive communications, public affairs, media relations, internal communications and executive speechwriting. At Weyerhaeuser, I also spearheaded communications for a complex companywide supply chain re-engineering project and SAP implementation that touched nearly every employee at this Fortune 500 forest products company, and I collaborated with Weyerhaeuser's CEO on his monthly board communications.

Today, I run my own communications consultancy.