Jack Leslie (public relations executive)

John W. Leslie, Jr., commonly known as Jack Leslie, is an American public relations executive, political consultant and international development activist. He is the chairman of Weber Shandwick, a global public relations firm. President George W. Bush appointed him to the board of the U.S. African Development Foundation in 2003. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed him chairman.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Leslie graduated from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) as legislative assistant and later as northeast regional director in the Kennedy for President campaign of 1980. After the presidential campaign, he served as Executive Director of the Fund for a Democratic Majority, a political action committee Kennedy founded to support Democratic candidates.

In 1983, Leslie left Washington for New York City to join the media consultant David Sawyer, and in 1985 became president of Sawyer Miller Group, a campaign consulting and strategic communications firm.

Sawyer Miller Group was sold to the advertising firm Bozell Jacobs Kenyon & Eckhardt in 1992, then merged with Robinson Lake, a New York-based corporate communications consultancy chaired by Linda Robinson. The firm later split and became Bozell Sawyer Miller Group. Bozell was acquired by True North, which in turn was acquired by Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) in 2001. In 2001, Bozell Sawyer Miller Group (BSMG) was merged with Weber Shandwick. Leslie was named chairman, and Harris Diamond CEO.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Leslie provided political counsel to presidential and statewide campaigns in the United States, Latin America, Asia and Africa. Leslie served as a communications crisis advisor to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the immediate aftermath of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and to American Airlines following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, he testified before the House International Relations Committee on U.S. public diplomacy programs directed at the Muslim world. Leslie is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served as a member of the group's Task Force on Terrorism and Public Diplomacy. He is also a member of the CuriosityStream Advisory Board.

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