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Thom M. Serafin
With a distinguished career spanning three decades, Thom M. Serafin is of one the Midwest’s leading business communications advisors
and political pundits.
The founder and CEO of Serafin & Associates,
Inc. 20 years ago, Thom leads a powerful communications team, providing
strategic counseling on public relations initiatives, public affairs
campaigns, and crisis and reputation management. The diverse Serafin client list
ranges from local and state businesses and associations to
multi-national corporations.
An insightful strategist, Thom is well-known in the
business arena for his ability to identify and effectively deliver a
message, and he is the go-to guy when a crisis warrants strong
leadership. Thom has an innate ability to diffuse potentially damaging
crisis situations. His calm
demeanor and methodical business sense make him the ideal advisor and
spokesperson when corporate reputations are at stake.
Thom’s expertise as a political communications
analyst comes after years of hands-on experience, first as a network
radio political correspondent, later as press secretary for three U.S.
Senate campaigns, a U.S.
Presidential campaign, and on the Washington
D.C. staff of U.S.
Senator Alan Dixon. Over
the years, he has served as a strategist for some of the
country’s most high-profile politicians.
An independent thinker as well as voter, Thom is a widely
sought after political analyst and familiar face and voice on Illinois and Chicago network television and radio
affiliates. His in-depth
knowledge of the political scene, along with an affable manner and
great sense of humor, make him a regular on PBS, WGN and Chicago’s
ABC, NBC and Fox network affiliates and he has appeared on NBC’s
Today Show.
Thom received his Master’s Degree in Public
Affairs Reporting from the University
of Illinois, Springfield under the direction of
his long-time friend and mentor, the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon. While not too many Americans
have supped with Fidel Castro, Thom spent a day with the dictator and
Sen. Simon when he served as Director of Operations and Media for Sen.
Simon’s humanitarian mission to Cuba in 2001.
Thom serves on the Communications Advisory Board of
the Salvation Army, Chicago, the Board of Directors of the West
Suburban Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the University
of Illinois, Springfield
Alumni Board, and the University
of Illinois’
Leadership Roundtable. An
avid sportsman and Little League coach, Thom lives with his beautiful
wife and two sons in LaGrange
Park, Illinois.
Betsy Sales
Betsy Sales
joined the Serafin team in 1991 and is responsible for some of the
company’s most complex accounts.
Before joining Serafin & Associates, Inc., Betsy
was marketing director for the Chicago Tribune’s WGN Radio where
she sharpened her reputation in the industry as a marketing guru. She
helped coordinate all public and media relations, marketing, promotional,
philanthropic and advertising outreach efforts for the station and
worked closely with city and state officials to inform listeners of
public programs and events.
Betsy initiated, developed and executed many joint
sports marketing ventures with the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears and
DePaul University that are still in evidence today – the most
famous being the “Harry for a Day” program where
celebrities such as Bill Murray, George Wendt and Jim Belushi filled in
for Harry Caray during his recuperation from a stroke.
Betsy worked closely with Arlington
Park, the National
Thoroughbred Racing Association and Chicago and Illinois
tourism officials to develop a promotional and marketing program for
the 2002 Breeders’ Cup held at Arlington Park. The program resulted in
substantially increased awareness for this exciting international
event.
Betsy continues to consistently break new ground
developing innovative public affairs/relations activities for the
clients at Serafin & Associates. It was the urban marketing
program she designed that enabled Wal-Mart to achieve its first
successful store entrance into a major metropolitan community.
In Chicago’s
business and political worlds, Betsy is appreciated for her candor and
can-do attitude, having been involved in a variety of issues and
philanthropic endeavors.
She is a graduate of the University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA) and
lives with her husband, Tom, in Chicago.
Joshua E.
Robbins
Joshua Robbins’ career has been driven by his
passion and determination to serve clients' needs while encouraging
them to pursue challenging goals.
Joshua has used his strategic approaches to
communications, human relations and crisis management to serve a
diverse client base including manufacturing, energy, technology,
government and not-for-profit organizations.
He has used his knowledge in community relations,
crisis management and organizational communications to help clients
through litigation and organizational change, while pursuing proactive
relationship building and positioning. Joshua has also made many
political strides for clients, leading underdog companies to
legislative victories.
He has developed and implemented a wide array of
extensive stakeholder, community, grassroots and customer outreach
programs, and led communications assessments for state agencies,
industry, public companies and not-for-profits.
Joshua joined Serafin & Associates in 1998 and
is currently providing his superior leadership to major companies such as
Ameren Illinois Utilities. For
three years he has managed the Vulcan Materials Company account,
overseeing the community relations function for 26 aggregate
production facilities in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. His communications scope
includes litigation, zoning/permitting, media relations, corporate
contributions, community outreach, critical issues and reputation
management.
Joshua began his interest in politics and
communications in 1993 when he was appointed student trustee on the
Miami University Board of Trustees. He resumed his political journey
with George Voinovich's gubernatorial campaign in 1994. It was there
that Joshua honed his ability to work in a fast-paced environment while
dealing with aggressive timelines.
Joshua followed that up by becoming director of
special communications at the Ohio Bureau Workers' Compensation (BWC)
– a $23 billion state insurance agency that employed 3,300
people. Through improved customer service and outreach programs, Joshua
played an instrumental role in a massive agency transformation.
In 2004, Joshua was nominated for an Emmy in
Outstanding Achievement for Special Events Programming after developing
the concept for and producing a two-hour bipartisan debate between U.S.
Senate candidates.
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