Bob Shrum | Speakers Bureau | Keynote Speakers

Bob Shrum has advised nearly every major Democratic candidate from Edmund Muskie and Ted Kennedy to Al Gore and John Kerry, because he understands how political campaigns are fought and won.

A complete list of Shrum’s clients would be a “Who’s Who” of American politics. As chairman of Shrum, Devine & Donilon, a political media consulting firm, he has created and produced advertising that resulted in winning campaigns for over 20 U.S. Senators, six Governors, mayors of many major cities and several Congressmen.

Shrum’s international clients have included leaders of Israel, Colombia, Ireland and Great Britain’s Labour Party. The high-stakes game of politics often finds Shrum working at the crossroads of politics, media, technology, PR and advertising, and he provides audiences a true practitioner’s insights on global politics including a look at the Obama Administration, Congress and the upcoming 2012 elections. With over four decades’ experience crafting political communications, Shrum understands precisely how much technology has changed the face of political messaging and communications and the role it will play in shaping future elections. Shrum is the author of No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner.

TOPICS

A Look at the Obama Administration and the 2012 Elections
Where Have You Gone, Ronald Reagan?: Has the Iconographic Presidency Ended?
Do Words Have Power?: The Unhidden Persuaders and the Uses and Abuses of Political Language

Full Biography

Robert M. Shrum was senior advisor to the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004. The Atlantic Monthly described him as “the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party.” He served as a senior adviser to the Gore 2000 Presidential Campaign, to the campaign of Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and to the British Labour Party in the 2001 Parliamentary campaign.

Shrum was the principal speechwriter to Senator George McGovern in the 1972 Democratic campaign for President. Subsequently, he was the staff director and chief counsel of the United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. Shrum served as press secretary to Senator Edward M. Kennedy from 1980 to 1984, and he was the Senator’s principal speechwriter during and after the 1980 presidential campaign.

As a journalist, Shrum’s work has appeared in New York magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The New Republic, among other publications. He has been a columnist for Slate and The Huffington Post, and writes a regular column for TheWeek.com. Since

1985, Shrum was a strategist and advertising consultant for thirty winning U.S. Senate campaigns; eight winning campaigns for Governor; the Mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Dade County and San Francisco, and the Democratic Leader of the United States House of Representatives.

Shrum’s book, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner, was published in June 2007 by Simon and Schuster. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, and has taught at Yale and Boston College.