As a senior public affairs counselor, Terry M. Wade brings more than a quarter century of experience in communications, media, public relations, government and politics.
Mr. Wade recently established TheWadeGroup, Inc., a consortium of public affairs professionals, after serving as executive vice president for public affairs worldwide for Cohn & Wolfe, one of the world's top 15 public relations firms.
Prior to taking the worldwide post with Cohn & Wolfe, Mr. Wade served as the chief executive officer of Cohn & Wolfe/Washington, where he provided clients with strategic counsel on a variety of issues and developed and managed numerous grassroots and advocacy campaigns on the state and national levels.
His primary role for clients over the past decade has been as a strategic counselor, advising senior level managers on development and implementation of effective communications, issues management and crisis preparedness plans.
Mr. Wade provided strategic counsel to the U.S. Census Bureau in its unprecedented public outreach campaign for Census 2000 and, for the more than five years, provided the U.S. Postal Service with strategic counsel and advice on issues facing the agency.
From labor strikes and lawsuits to pollution run-off and radiation leaks, Mr. Wade has also successfully provided counsel to numerous companies, organizations and government entities during their most challenging and volatile crises. Mr. Wade successfully advised the J.M. Smucker Company through labor contract negotiations, advising the company on media relations and its response to counter labor union media efforts and counseling its community relations activities. He recently was the global team leader for a major international firm's issues and crisis management efforts relating to genetically modified foods.
Prior to being asked to head the Washington office of Cohn & Wolfe in 1996, Mr. Wade was managing director in Burson-Marsteller's Public Affairs Practice where his expertise was put to work for numerous Fortune 500 clients.
Before joining Burson-Marsteller in 1995, Mr. Wade was president of LWM Communications, a public relations and advertising firm where he provided services to clients such as the American Gaming Association, American Bar Association, The President's Drug Advisory Council, Coopers and Lybrand Consulting and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. At LWM, Mr. Wade wrote a crisis preparedness manual for the U.S. Department of Energy, trained department officials and provided counsel on a number of controversial issues.
Mr. Wade began his career as a print reporter in Oklahoma. During his 10 years as a journalist, he worked for the Donrey Media Group, serving first as its Oklahoma capitol reporter, then as Donrey's Washington, D.C., bureau chief, and was the editor of The Nevada Appeal, an award-winning state capitol newspaper.