Winner: D. Michelle Flowers, President and CEO, Flowers Communications Group
Entrepreneurial spirit and evangelical fortitude have guided D. Michelle Flowers' career in public relations. After graduating from Northwestern University with a Master's in
advertising in 1982, she kick-started what would become a series of high-impact positions that culminated in her current role as president and CEO of Flowers Communications Group,
an integrated communications marketing firm that specializes in the African-American and Hispanic markets.
Long before ethnic marketing embodied a definitive practice area, Flowers anticipated the need representing minority groups. Her early career was punctuated with such
achievements as helping agency Golin/Harris create and develop an ethnic market division when she was an acting account supervisor. Later, she developed the entrepreneurial side
of her brain by advocating for more African-American-owned PR firms; her efforts helped many, including her former employee Lon Walls, who opened Washington, D.C.-based Walls
Communications Group.
But it's not just a nose for meeting the needs of oft-underrepresented markets that makes Flowers an exceptional practitioner; her knack for innovation and judgment in the face
of business challenges helped her grow her firm, which was founded in 1991, to one of the largest African-American and female-owned agencies in the country. (It's worth noting
that the combined African-American and Hispanic consumer market represents an estimated $2 trillion.) Plus, initiatives like the Illinois HIV/AIDS education campaign affect her
audience on a deeply personal level. And, a true communicator, Flowers is no stranger to the need for careful preparation: Her agency's strategic planning model is founded on a
seven-step tool that helps clients define goals and anticipate outcomes.
She's also no stranger to coincidences: One of six children, Flowers' father is a horticulturist. Now she has a family of her own, and the seven-foot oil painting of them that
she created is what greets her when she walks into her foyer. Besides her passion for art, which she supplements with painting and drawing classes, she likes to live life on the
edge of her seat - literally.
"I love sports cars," she says. "I got my first two-seater 20 years ago and fell in love. Since then, I have never driven anything that's not sleek, low to the ground and
fast."
Contact: [email protected]
Winner: Victor Kamber, President, Carmen Group Communications
Victor Kamber isn't afraid to raise the stakes with a little bit of controversy. As a veteran consultant for the Democratic Party and an active political consultant and
commentator, Kamber has authored four books, including Poison Politics and Giving Up on Democracy: Why Term Limits Are Bad for America, which incite debates surrounding the state
of American politics.
But it's all good, clean fun for Kamber, whose career in labor communications and government affairs has been marked by success after success. To set his active professional
life into motion, Kamber earned four degrees - J.D., L.L.M., M.A. in rhetoric and public address and a B.A. from the University of Illinois - assisted various Washington, D.C.-
based lobbyists and federal departments, and then lit a fire under the public affairs, politics and labor communications industries by founding The Kamber Group in 1980.
Fifteen years later, he switched firms - and political labels - by joining Republican-leaning PR and marketing company Carmen Group Communications as its president. The move to
close his namesake firm and go red, so to speak, raised more than a few eyebrows, but Kamber defended his decision with a "one door closes, another one opens" mentality.
"It was a terrific opportunity to go over to Carmen and create a new entity," he says of CGC's status as a fledgling off-shoot of the Carmen Group, which specializes in general
lobbying and government relations. "You just decide to close parts of your life."
The move turned out to be fortuitous for both "parties;" 18 months under Victor's leadership took Carmen Group Communication from an embryonic subsidiary of its parent company
to an all-purpose agency with big-time clients.
In addition, closing one part of his life and opening another only suggests an openness to change; to further that notion, Kamber has embraced the changing media landscape with
his blog, http://www.victorkamber.com. True to his fire-starter personality, Kamber's blog voice is never rendered speechless by any
political goings-on. (For the record, his blog entries still bleed Democratic.)
Rather, he waxes opinionated on everything from the Democrats' impending possible overthrow of the Republican-majority Congress to the (satirical) top 10 reasons why
Republicans can win the midterm elections that were preparing to start as this issue went to press.
Satire is an intrinsic characteristic of Kamber - visible in his rhetoric, his writing and his public commentary - as is a laidback persona that Capitol Hill types often lack.
For example, he promotes flexible hours - surely something employees living outside the Beltway can appreciate.
And then there's that casual dress code. After all, whether you are Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative, for Victor Kamber of The Kamber Group or Victor Kamber of
Carmen Group Communications, the essential colors, for him, will always boil down to red, white and blue.
Contact: [email protected]
Winner: Richard Levick, President/CEO, Levick Strategic Communication
"Why would I want to be anywhere else?"
That's what Richard Levick asks himself when faced with "what do you want to be when you grow up?" - a question that neither has age limitations nor plays favorites. And it's
an apt response for Levick, who, as the president and CEO of litigation and crisis firm Levick Strategic Communications, has found himself in an elusive yet rewarding position:
the top.
But any executive (communications or otherwise) knows that ascent to the top is the slipperiest slope of all, and Levick acts accordingly. It's a climb he began decades ago
with his rise through the education system, beginning with his Bachelor's in urban studies and Master's in environmental studies, and continuing with the law degree he earned from
American University School of Law. A seeming non sequitur, his evolution from all things urban and environmental to law to communications actually followed a strategic path, which
Levick described for one publication:
"In the years immediately after law school, I began to realize that the common denominator in all the things that seemed important to me - law, business, politics - is
communications. Perception trumps reality. How we communicate is as important as what we communicate."
Levick, then, may be perceived as a lawyer, a consultant, a crisis communicator, but in reality he is a combination of the three. His firm, established in 1998 as an office of
two, now employs 30 professionals and handles an industry Levick largely created himself - that of legal media, a specific yet pervasive niche of overall litigation and crisis
communications. His clients and campaigns are among the world's most infamous: Dubai Ports World and its national security scandal, the Guantanamo Bay controversy, and the
Catholic Church. (The recent difficulties of the Church prompt a reference to Levick's own religious experiences: Just prior to his Bar Mitzvah, his rabbi imparted words of wisdom
that, metaphorically speaking, mentor him to this day: "Don't worry," the rabbi said. "Nobody out there speaks Hebrew anyway.")
Perhaps it was his rabbi's words that instilled in Levick a lack of fear - fear to fail, fear to lose, fear to make mistakes - or maybe it's his appetite for new opportunities.
No matter the source, that fearlessness has driven him, his business and the overall communications profession to accept challenges and manage risk.
"If you're not losing, you're not in the game," Levick says. "Mistakes are the sound made when a door closes. Our wisdom comes from learning enough in the mistake to see the
new door that opens as a result."
Winner: Tom Martin, Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Relations, ITT Corporation
Tom Martin is a man of many talents. He is a top-notch corporate communicator, of course, as proven by his resume: 18 years at FedEx saw him skyrocket through the ranks, from
a training program writer when the company was hardly known to the VP of corporate communications for one of the most reputable corporate behemoths in the world. His next step
landed him at ITT Corporation, where he currently serves as the SVP and director of corporate relations, and will continue to do so until the end of the year.
But the road to Martin's current corporate communications notoriety is more definitive of the talents that shape him. After majoring in English at Vanderbilt University, he
had an opportunity to go to law school, which he bypassed in favor of a year-long exchange program in Switzerland to, of all things, work as a chef. (Cooking remains a passion of
his to this day; his favorite meal to prepare at the moment is lamb.) As is often the case, the year abroad helped Martin "find himself," and, upon his return to the United
States, a career in communications was born. (The early years at FedEx were supplemented by freelancing personality profiles and dining reviews for local magazines.)
Martin has built his career and his reputation on tenets of solid communications strategy. He helped build FedEx's corporate communications department, and today it remains
the archetypal example of how an integrated, strategically aligned organization should operate. Likewise, his tenure at ITT has been defined by successful initiatives, including
the 1998 launch of a unified corporate brand identity and the 2002 plan to enhance the company's presence in China.
If living abroad as a recent college graduate was Martin's first moment of self-efficacy, his second would be the day he spent at the College of Charleston as a visiting
"professor" while serving as president of the Arthur W. Page Society (2004-2005). "I fell in love with teaching," he says. "I really want to work on the gap between how current
PR students are being educated and what is needed."
To make strides in filling that gap, Martin resigned from ITT this year to join the College of Charleston as a professor (his transition from corporate communicator to
professor will take place in 2007). And, after a successful career of doing what he loves, raising two sons, teaching them to sail, cooking, eating well and traveling, he now
considers himself blessed with something so many people lack: an end goal.
"[After the day of teaching at Charleston] I called my wife and said, 'Now I know exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life.'"
And really, what could be better than that?
Contact: [email protected]