BIOGRAPHY

Dr. David B. Rockland

Partner
Global Director of Research
Ketchum Communications

Dr. Rockland joined Ketchum Communications, one of the ten largest public relations firms in the world, in 2000. He is now Senior Vice President and Global Director of Research. Rockland is responsible for overseeing the agency’s research products and services, as well as continuing to develop innovative approaches to public relations research and measurement for Ketchum clients around the globe. Rockland works with Ketchum’s twenty-five global offices to establish a consistent approach to research at the agency. He has staff reporting to him in eight different offices in the U.S. and overseas.

A core competency is research design and implementation. At Ketchum, he designs measurement programs for many clients around the world, and is currently developing a suite of ROI assessment tools for public relations. He is heavily focused on advanced statistical techniques, skills that he has employed throughout his career. For example, his doctoral dissertation was on the subject of quantifying the value of intangible benefits that are not often established in a marketplace.

Prior to joining Ketchum, Rockland was Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Roper Starch Worldwide in Washington, D.C. In that role, he managed the company’s environmental and public relations practice areas. He oversaw approximately 40 client relationships and was the lead business generator for the company.

Rockland’s other career experiences center around communications, research and environmental issues. He served in corporate communications positions with BHP Copper and Times Mirror Magazines. During his tenure at Times Mirror, he was on loan half-time to serve as President of the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation at the request of the EPA Administrator. In addition, he wrote a quarterly column that reached 33 million readers across 13 consumer publications.

At BHP Copper, he was responsible for all communications and external relations for the world’s largest copper mining company. This included managing 54 staff in six countries and four U.S. states, and developing an overall corporate brand for the company that was communicated through community, investor, employee, customer and other stakeholder outreach programs. He has also run his own firm, The Rockland Group, that specialized in environmental issues management and marketing. He sold the firm to Roper Starch in 1998 and he and his staff became Roper employees.

His career has included an extensive amount of publishing, lecturing, and teaching on an array of eclectic subjects. Rockland has been widely published in the consumer press, including his column while at Times Mirror Magazines, and many other articles and columns ranging from public policy topics to “how-to” fishing pieces in the consumer press, to articles spanning from the state of public relations measurement to mining law reform in trade publications. He has several refereed journal articles, as well as chapters in a number of books, primarily on natural resources economics. Rockland is frequently interviewed on matters related to public relations measurement, and often guest lectures at various colleges and universities.

Rockland has a breadth of experience in public policy. His dissertation dealt specifically with this field, and his initial work experiences included research that was often presented in Congressional testimony on such subjects as the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the value of tourism in Florida, and the costs and benefits of various fishery allocation programs. He worked for a trade association for the sport fishing industry conducting and reporting research that was used to set regulations and pass laws that affected a variety of fishery resources including redfish and striped bass. With Times Mirror Magazines and NEETF, he funded research to determine support for various national policies related to natural resources (e.g. wetlands, farm policies, public lands management) and environmental education, particularly focused on K-12 audiences. At his own firm and then with Roper he had a vast array of clients in the public policy arena. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation that supports the largest Caucus on Capitol Hill. The Secretary of the Interior appointed Rockland to the Board of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. At Ketchum, he continues this track record of public policy research.

He is on the faculty of the Communications Department at the University of Maryland where he teaches the Senior Capstone Seminar in public relations. In this role, he helps graduating seniors bridge the gap from academia to a professional work environment.

Rockland is a graduate of Rutgers College (class of 1979) with a major in economics. He remains connected to Rutgers University by teaching the course “America as a Business Civilization” each fall semester. He holds a Master in Economics from the University of Delaware as well as a Ph.D. in Natural Resources Economics from that institution. He and his wife – Sarah Dutton, Deputy Director of Polls for CBS News -- reside in Manhattan and on a farm on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.