Harold Burson, Founding Chairman, Burson-Marsteller
Harold Burson and Bill Marsteller established Burson-Marsteller on March 1, 1953. The new jointly owned Burson-Marsteller was the first firm to offer what has become known as integrated communications. In the more than 50 years that followed, Mr. Burson continued to lead the integration of PR, marketing and advertising.
But his impact has gone far beyond the realm of PR. Mr. Burson has contributed to the public relations industry and worldwide community as a member and leader of several organizations, among them: Presidential appointee to the Fine Arts Commission, Washington, 1981-1985; Chairman of the National Council on Economic Education; trustee of The Economics Club of New York; Chairman of the USIA Public Relations Advisory Committee, and board member of the World Wildlife Fund (Geneva). He was elected to the Horatio Alger Society in 1986 and is an Executive Council Member of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.
Mr. Burson is also founder of the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund, Washington, D.C., a director of Kennedy Center Productions, Inc., and a trustee and founder of the Fortas Chamber Music Fund. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, the New York Academy of Medicine, the President’s Advisory Board of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Advisory Board of the Business Council for International Understanding.