Michael W. Robinson

Michael W. Robinson is a trusted counselor and strategist to global C-Suite executives, elected officials, and financial market leaders. Mr. Robinson has been directly involved with the highest-profile business, financial, and policy issues of the last three decades, from Wall Street to the White House to the highest levels of Corporate America.

His focus includes corporate communications, strategy, and reputation leadership for public and private companies; crisis communications and regulatory-legal investigations and litigation; public affairs and legislative advocacy; corporate governance; and investor relations.

As the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Public Affairs and Policy Chief under Chairman Harvey Pitt, Mr. Robinson drove the development and articulation of the Commission’s policies and actions across a wide array of issues including Sarbanes-Oxley, Enron, WorldCom, and a host of other high-profile enforcement and policy matters. He personally counseled the SEC Chairman and the individual Commissioners on all matters related to relations with external constituencies.

Mr. Robinson subsequently led the communications initiatives in the U.S., Europe, and Asia in connection with Freddie Mac’s $6 billion accounting restatement and successfully managed the subsequent political impact of this development. As Vice President of Friedman Billings Ramsey Group, Inc. – one of the nation’s 10 largest investment banks and venture capital firms – Mr. Robinson directed all external and internal marketing and corporate communications, as well as investor and government relations.

Mr. Robinson also directed global communications for The NASDAQ Stock Market and the NASD. While there, he led the effort to establish NASD Regulation as a viable regulator for the securities industry and created communications and marketing campaigns that positioned NASDAQ to retain its largest listed companies during a scandal. During his tenure as Senior Managing Director and Deputy Corporate Practice Leader in Hill and Knowlton’s Washington office, Mr. Robinson spearheaded brand development, executive leadership campaigns, and corporate reputation initiatives, as well as crisis communications for clients including Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Ernst & Young, and KPMG.

Mr. Robinson was a key member of the global communication team for Mobil Corporation, and helped direct the successful communications strategy in support of the $98 billion Exxon-Mobil merger. He’s been a spokesman for the Department of Justice as well as a member of President George H.W. Bush’s communications team, and was active in the campaigns of George H.W. and George W. Bush.

In 2009, Mr. Robinson was named Public Affairs Executive of the Year by PR News. He is a widely quoted expert across a range of financial, crisis, and Washington-based public relations issues. At The New York Times in the 1980s, Mr. Robinson was a member of the Business Section when it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the October 1987 stock market crash, and worked with the team that won the Pulitzer for its coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

Mr. Robinson has a Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University (Magna Cum Laude) in Journalism and Political Science.