Mark Penn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Mark Penn

Born January 15, 1954 (1954-01-15) (age 55)
New York, New York
Alma mater Harvard College
Occupation Worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller
President of Penn, Schoen & Berland
Spouse(s) Nancy Jacobson
Children 3 daughters, 1 son
Website
www.burson-marsteller.com
www.psbresearch.com

Mark J. Penn (born January 15, 1954), is the worldwide CEO of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates.[1] In September 2007, he released a book titled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, which examines small trends sweeping the world.[2] Penn's clients have included political and business leaders, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates; he also served as chief strategist and pollster to Hillary Clinton in her 2008 presidential campaign. [3] Penn is married to Nancy Jacobson, a professional fundraiser.[4]

Contents

[edit] Early Life

Penn is a graduate of the Horace Mann School in New York City (1972) and of Harvard University (1976). He also attended Columbia Law School.

[edit] Career

Penn advises organizations and companies on a wide range of image, branding and competitive marketing assignments. He is best known for serving as President Bill Clinton's pollster and political adviser for the 1996 re-election campaign and throughout the second term of the administration.

He was initially on Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, but was fired after being described as arrogant and controlling, Penn was said to be "someone who pushed the boundaries of his job by dispensing strategic advice rather than simply interpreting data".[5] Gore's aides were also concerned that his real loyalty was to the Clintons, when he dismissed the effect that the Clinton scandals had on Gore's presidential candidacy.

He then ran the polling and messaging and was part of the media team for the successful Senate campaign of Hillary Clinton, serving as her chief campaign adviser.

He has been a key adviser to Bill Gates and Microsoft since the late 1990s,[6] and continued to represent Microsoft while working on the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.[7]

Penn also advised British Prime Minister Tony Blair "for his successful run for a third term."

[edit] Early years

Penn founded Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) in 1975 while he was an undergraduate at Harvard. Two years later, he and his schoolmate Doug Schoen helped congressman Ed Koch run for mayor of New York City. During the course of the campaign, Penn invented the "overnight poll," a microcomputer that enabled the campaign to conduct surveys and tabulate results in one night, five times faster than campaigns had polled before.[8]

With Koch's success, Penn and Schoen attracted other political clients, including Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Evan Bayh of Indiana. [9] as well as Menachem Begin of Israel. [10] In the mid-1980s, Penn turned his attention to the corporate world, aiming to bring the rapid-research-and-response technique of political campaigns to corporate communications. Early corporate clients included Texaco, Eli Lilly and AT&T.[11] During AT&T's battle with MCI, Penn designed the "mall test," in which his pollsters approached people in shopping malls around America and asked for their reactions to actual and prospective TV ads. [12]

[edit] President Bill Clinton - 1994-2000

In 1994, Penn and Schoen were asked to help President Bill Clinton recover from the Democratic Party's dramatic losses during that year's midterm elections. The pollsters urged Clinton to move to the center, emphasizing stepped-up law enforcement, balancing the budget and other issues. [13]

[edit] 1996 presidential campaign

During President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, Penn used the mall tests he had developed for AT&T to test presidential campaign ads. He also created the "NeuroPersonality Poll," a survey that blended standard political and demographic questions with lifestyle, attitudinal, and psychographic questions, some adapted from Myers-Briggs. Penn's 1996 Neuro Poll helped him identify a new swing voter: the "soccer mom." Previously pollsters had thought that defining voter variables were things such age and income; Penn argued that a key defining variable was also marital status. He found that if voters had children at home, the gap was even wider: parents were 10-15 points more likely to lean Republican. Based on this analysis, Penn urged Clinton to focus on policies that appealed to suburban parents and to speak about these policies in terms of values rather than economics. [14]He subsequently became famous for focusing on the “soccer mom”, cited as the key swing vote that helped President Bill Clinton get re-elected in 1996. [15]

[edit] Second term

After the election, and for most of the second term, Penn and Schoen were hired to conduct White House polls and met weekly with the President and the White House staff in the White House residence to review polls and policy ideas. These polls influenced President Clinton's thinking and helped to refine his "new Democrat" language and policies that are one of his distinctive political contributions. [16]

[edit] Hillary Clinton senatorial campaigns - 2000, 2006

In 2000, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton asked Penn to advise her on her run for the U.S. Senate from New York. During the campaign, tension brewed between Penn, who urged Clinton to focus on the issues, and other advisers, who urged Clinton to focus more on personality. [17] Clinton followed Penn's advice and won the election. Penn served again as Clinton's pollster in her successful 2006 Senate re-election campaign.

[edit] Hillary Clinton presidential campaign - 2008

In 2008, he served as chief strategist to Hillary Clinton's campaign for president. [18] Again, Penn and his colleagues held differences of opinion over how much to “humanize” Clinton, with Penn arguing that the vast majority of voters cared more about substance than style. [19] Clinton was the front-runner in the early months of the Democratic primary, but in January 2008 she lost the Iowa caucus to then-Senator Barack Obama.

[edit] Controversies

In his role as Clinton's chief strategist, Penn gained attention[when?] during a controversy about Barack Obama's admission of drug use during Obama's adolescence and questions about whether the Clinton campaign was trying to exploit the issue. Appearing on Hardball with Chris Matthews with the head of the John Edwards and Obama campaigns, Penn stated that the campaign was not making an issue of the drug use, but used the word cocaine (which Obama admitted taking in his memoir "Dreams from My Father"[20]), causing Edwards spokesman Joe Trippi to accuse him and the rest of the Clinton campaign of distortion.[21] Edwards had formerly compared Penn to Karl Rove,[22] and the day after Penn's comments, Jennifer Donahue of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics appeared on Hardball where she too drew the parallel in reference to voter perception of the general tone of the campaign. After Obama's victory in Iowa and Clinton's subsequent fall in national polls, it was reported on msnbc.com that Clinton was considering firing Penn.[23] However, Penn continued to play an important role in Senator Clinton's campaign.

Penn's strategy in the primary elections was to concentrate on winning the largest states. He predicted that victories in large states like California and New York would give Clinton a decisive victory on Super Tuesday. Penn would draw ridicule for his alleged ignorance of the rules after Time's Karen Tumulty retold a story of an early Clinton strategy session. In that meeting, Penn allegedly said that a win for Clinton in California would be decisive, since it would award her all 370 of the state's delegates.[24] This suggests Penn thought the Democratic primaries awarded delegates in a "winner-take-all" fashion, rather than proportional allocation. Penn denies the story.[25]

The rules stated that delegates from a primary would be roughly proportional to a candidate's vote total, as opposed to electoral votes in the general election, yet the campaign maintained Penn's strategy. Consequently, while Clinton won the large states, she wound up splitting the delegates albeit getting a majority of them, due to Obama's strong showing in urban areas (particularly those with large African-American concentrations) and with educated voters.[26] However in small states and caucuses which Clinton neglected, Obama won them by overwhelming margins and received the big majority of delegates there.[27][26]

As Obama accumulated wins in smaller states throughout February, Penn famously asked, "Could we possibly have a nominee who hasn't won any of the significant states -- outside of Illinois? That raises some serious questions about Sen. Obama.”[28] The statement was a lightning rod for criticism and parody of the Clinton campaign's strategy, particularly on netroot blogs like Daily Kos.[29]

In mid-2007, the dual role of Mark Penn as the CEO of Burson-Marsteller and chief strategist for Hillary Clinton irked some labor leaders. Labor leaders wrote to Clinton expressing their concern about Burson-Marsteller's anti-labor work.[30] Other firms besides Microsoft which have used the services of Penn's firm include private security company Blackwater and troubled mortgage lender Countrywide. Clinton has strongly criticized Blackwater, although Penn has said that the Blackwater contract has since been finished.[31] Penn, considered a centrist corporatist, reported had a poor relationship with civil rights and labor activist Harold M. Ickes, which carried over from their days in President Bill Clinton's administration to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.[32]

[edit] Resignation

On April 4, 2008, Penn apologized for working for officials of President Álvaro Uribe (Colombia) for the purposes of lobbying for a free trade agreement that Clinton opposed.[33] Penn admitted to "an error in his judgment" after being criticized for meeting with Colombia's ambassador to the United States on the subject of advancing a potential bilateral trade agreement between the two countries. Penn suggested that he had conducted the meeting as part of his role as CEO of Burson-Marsteller. However, the ambassador was unclear in what capacity Penn was conducting the meeting and Penn's advocacy for the trade agreement seemed to undercut his client Hillary Clinton's "well known" opposition to the deal.[34]

On April 5, 2008 the Colombian government terminated its business with Penn and his Burson-Marstellar firm.[35]

Two large U.S. labor organizations have criticized Penn's support for free trade agreements. Service Employees International Union and UNITE HERE have both called for his resignation from the Clinton campaign.[33]

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, on April 6, 2008, hinted that Penn should be fired from the Clinton campaign.[36]

Later that day, campaign manager Maggie Williams announced that Penn had "asked to give up his role as Chief Strategist." Geoff Garin and Howard Wolfson were in charge of the campaign's strategy. Williams further said, "Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign."[37][38]

On April 6, 2008 Penn resigned from his role strategic advisor to the Clinton campaign, although he continued to provide some polling and research services. According to a June 2008 article, Penn's role in the Clinton campaign had had a positive impact on Burson-Marsteller's business.[39]

Penn blamed Clinton's defeat on money and organization, conceding that Barack Obama had run a good campaign.[40][41]

Analyst Dick Morris, in an article for the right wing web site, Newsmax.com, refuted Penn's position, outlining Penn's mistakes in detail and showing there has never been a better financially prepared nomination campaign than this.[42]

As of April 15, 2009, Federal Election filings show that Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign owes Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates $2.3 million.[43]

[edit] Microtrends

His book, Microtrends, published by Hachette Book Group USA, examines how small ideas can catch fire and lead to big changes. For example, Penn shows how a mere one percent of the American public, or 3 million people, can create a “microtrend” capable of launching a major business or even a new cultural movement, changing commercial, political and social landscapes.[44]In December 2008, Penn and co-author E Kinney Zalesne began writing a regular online "Microtrends" column in the Wall Street Journal.[45]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Washington Post, February 19, 2007". http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900972.html. 
  2. ^ "Penn's Microtrends". PoliticalWire.com. August 20, 2007. http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/08/20/penns_microtrends.html. 
  3. ^ "Politico: Mark Penn Bio". http://www.politico.com/arena/bio/mark_penn.html. 
  4. ^ "Mark Penn's Wife Feeding At The Democratic Trough". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/10/mark-penns-wife-feeding-a_n_112058.html. 
  5. ^ Kornblut, Anne E. (April 30, 2007). "Clinton's PowerPointer". Washington Post. pp. A01. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042901661_pf.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-26. 
  6. ^ "Washington Post, June 30, 2006". http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063001478_2.htmlWashington. 
  7. ^ "The Economist, August 23, 2007". http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9687236. 
  8. ^ "The New York Observer: Rumpled Mark Penn, Clinton Pollster, Goes Back to Battle". http://www.observer.com/2007/hillary-s-rumpled-warrior?page=0. 
  9. ^ "Time Magazine: Masters of the Message". http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985538,00.html. 
  10. ^ "Washington Post: Clinton's Powerpointer". http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042901661_pf.html. 
  11. ^ "Washington Post: Clinton's Powerpointer". http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042901661_pf.html. 
  12. ^ "Time Magazine: Masters of the Message". http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985538,00.html. 
  13. ^ "Time Magazine, November 18, 1996". http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985538,00.html. 
  14. ^ "Time Magazine, November 18, 1996". http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985538,00.html. 
  15. ^ "ABC News, September 5, 2007". http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=3561628&page=1. 
  16. ^ "Washington Post: Policy and Politics by the Numbers, Dec 31, 2000". http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/65882116.html?dids=65882116:65882116&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Dec+31%2C+2000&author=John+F.+Harris&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=A.01&desc=Policy+and+Politics+by+the+Numbers%3B+For+the+President%2C+Polls+Became+a+Defining+Force+in+His+Administration. 
  17. ^ "The New York Times, June 18, 2000". http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/18/magazine/the-guru-of-small-things.html. 
  18. ^ "The Washington Post, April 30, 2007". http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042901661.html?hpid=topnews. 
  19. ^ "ABC News, September 5, 2007". http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=3561628&page=1. 
  20. ^ "Washington Post, January 3, 2007". http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010201359_pf.html. 
  21. ^ "War Room: Political News, Politics News - Salon". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/12/14/cocaine/index.html?source=rss&aim=/politics/war_room. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  22. ^ "ABC News: Edwards Likens Clinton Strategist To Rove". Abcnews.go.com. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3694881&page=1. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  23. ^ "Oh-eight (D): Staff shakeup ahead? - The Body Odd - msnbc.com". Firstread.msnbc.msn.com. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/08/558314.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  24. ^ Tumulty, Karen (May 8, 2008). "Time: The Five Mistakes Clinton Made". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1738331,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-26. 
  25. ^ Smith, Ben (May 08, 2008). "Penn denies Time report". Politico. http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Penn_denies_Time_report.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-26. 
  26. ^ a b "Salon.com | How Hillary Clinton botched the black vote". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/05/05/clinton_blackvote/print.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  27. ^ Karen Tumulty Thursday, May. 08, 2008 (Thursday, May. 08, 2008). "The Five Mistakes Clinton Made - TIME". Time.com. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1738331,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  28. ^ "Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall | Political Genius Walking Among Us". Talkingpointsmemo.com. 2008-02-14. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/178464.php. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  29. ^ kos (Feb 15, 2008). "I voted for Obama, hence, I don't matter". Daily Kos. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/15/9350/11897/337/457307. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  30. ^ Steven Greenhouse (2007-06-05). "A Top Clinton Aide Draws Criticism From Unions". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/us/politics/05labor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Retrieved on 2008-02-12. 
  31. ^ Smith, Ben (Oct 5, 2007). "Penn-Blackwater link puts HRC on defense". Politico.com. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6219.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  32. ^ "The Long Road to a Clinton Exit". New York Times. June 8, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/politics/08recon.html?pagewanted=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  33. ^ a b John M. Broder, "Clinton Strategist Lobbied for Trade Pact She Opposes," "New York Times," April 5, 2008
  34. ^ Kuhn, David Paul (2008-04-04). "Penn meeting 'an error in judgment'". Politico.com. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9390.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-26. 
  35. ^ John M. Broder, "Colombia to Penn: You’re Fired," "New York Times," April 5, 2008 http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/colombia-to-penn-youre-fired/
  36. ^ "Rendell criticizes Penn, hints he should be fired". CNN Blogs. CNN Political Ticker. 2008-04-06. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/06/rendell-criticizes-penn-hints-he-should-be-fired/. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  37. ^ "Political Radar: Clinton Chief Strategist Pushed Out". Blogs.abcnews.com. April 06, 2008 6:38 PM. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/clinton-chief-s.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  38. ^ "Clinton Campaign Strategist Mark Penn Steps Down". Election 2008 (NPR.org). April 06, 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89422142. Retrieved on 2008-12-26. 
  39. ^ "Mark Penn's role unchanged as Clinton campaign winds down". PR Week US. http://www.prweekus.com/Mark-Penns-role-unchanged-as-Clinton-campaign-winds-down/article/110996/. Retrieved on 2008-06-08. 
  40. ^ Penn, Mark (June 8, 2008). "Op-Ed Contributor - What Went Wrong? Twelve Experts on the Clinton Campaign". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/opinion/08penn.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  41. ^ "Political Punch". Blogs.abcnews.com. June 08, 2008 5:30 PM. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/06/mark-penn-says.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  42. ^ "Newsmax.com - Mark Penn Did Hillary In". Newsmax.com. http://newsmax.com/morris/hillary_clinton_mark_penn/2008/06/12/103906.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. 
  43. ^ "Clinton Slashes Campaign Debt in Half". 15 April 2009. http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/04/clinton-slashes.html. 
  44. ^ Microtrends. Penguin Press. http://www.penguincatalogue.co.uk/lo/press/title.html?titleId=3877&catalogueId=214. 
  45. ^ "Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2008". http://www.wsjmediakit.com/pdf/digital/press.20081211a.pdf. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mark Penn
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Penn"
Personal tools