Richard M. Newman, COO and President of The Newman Group, Inc., has been helping people become professionals, as well as assist professionals to improve their skills, for over five decades. He started out on that path in junior high school as an editor of the school paper and a correspondent for the local weekly newspaper. After three years of college science courses preparing him for veterinary school he decided to return to his journalism roots so after his undergraduate degree, he pursued a Master of Arts in Public Relations/Communications Management. Shortly after his first full-time public relations position he joined the Fourth Infantry Division in Vietnam as a combat correspondent.
After the service he spent over 20 years as an investor relations professional working with such diverse companies including but not limited to as Aim Telephones, Bausch & Lomb, Capital Holding Corporation, Mayfair Industries, PAXAR Corporation, Reebok International, and The Madison Fund to name a few. As an avocation during that time he founded the two largest national professional development programs for public relations practitioners, the New York University/PRSA program and The Professional Development Institute, which grew to influence the training of more than 100,000 communications professionals.
In the 1990s he joined his wife Joyce at The Newman Group, Inc., a budding business at the time, which was focused on helping professionals improve their communications skills in a variety of speaking situations – from platform presentations to media interviews – since 1975. The Group leads presentation skills workshops and media training sessions in which they teach clients effective video techniques; coach them for testimony and presentations in security analyst and shareholder meetings, sales conferences, and new product introductions; and assists clients in designing and conducting road-shows for initial public offerings. Their clients include such diverse organizations such as the American Diabetes Association, Baystate Health System, BBDO Worldwide, Bear, Stearns & Co., Coca-Cola North America, Ernst & Young, The Gillette Company, GoldenTree Asset Management LP, Hearst Corporation, and USA TODAY to name a few.
The Newman Group also works with publishing companies and has helped many best-selling authors to prepare for national media tours. To name just a few, they are Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy, In Our Defense; Johnnie Cochran, Journey to Justice; Janet Evanovich, Hard Eight; Victoria Gotti, The Senator’s Daughter along with many others (see website for the full list).
An accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America since 1970, Richard is a Fellow, PRSA and Past Chairman of PRSA’s Investor Relations Section. A director of PRSA’s New York Chapter from 1971-74, he was a member of the National Investor Relations Institute. A graduate of Cornell University, Richard also holds a Master of Arts in Public Relations/Communications Management from Syracuse University. He lives in New York City and Longboat Key FL.