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Dr. Frank I. Luntz
Frank Luntz is one of the most honored communication professionals in America today. Said comedian Al Franken, “Asking Frank Luntz if he really understands public opinion is like asking Julia Child if she really knows how to make a soufflé.” Time magazine named him one of 50 of America's most promising leaders aged 40 and under and he is the hottest pollster in America according to the Boston Globe. Frank was named one of the four Top Research Minds by Business Week and was the winner of the coveted Washington Post Crystal Ball award as the most accurate pundit.
Frank has written, supervised, and conducted more than a thousand surveys, focus groups and Instant Response sessions for corporate and public affairs clients in over 20 countries since forming his company in 1992. More than two-dozen FORTUNE 500 companies have turned to Dr. Luntz for language, message and communication guidance, from Merrill Lynch to Federal Express, from AT&T to American Express, from PWC to NASDAQ. Frank has done considerable work in the travel and hospitality industry for Continental Airlines, Hilton Hotels, NYC & Company, and virtually every hotel-casino company in Las Vegas. Said Vegas impresario Steve Wynn: “The guy's a genius with words. I gave my newest hotel my name because of Frank's research.”
Frank has also been retained by customer favorites McDonald's, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola Enterprises, and Kroger, Internet innovators like Ebay and 1-800-Flowers.com, as well as some of the largest business associations, from the Chamber of Commerce to the National Association of Manufacturers to the Business Roundtable. He has also worked for the Motion Picture Association, the Recording Industry Association, and several Hollywood studios. Wrote Mediaweek: “Luntz is doing what Madison Avenue has been doing for years. But he does it smoother.”
Frank was the creator and host of America's Voice, a unique Sunday morning talk show on MSNBC that featured face-to-face interviews with top political and cultural leaders in front of a live studio audience. The Instant Response focus group research technique he has pioneered was profiled on 60 Minutes in 1998. He has also been a guest on Meet the Press, Crossfire, The Jim Lehrer Newshour, The Montel Williams Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Charlie Rose Show, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
More media outlets have turned to Dr. Luntz for polling and consulting than to any other political pollster. In the 2000 and 2004 election cycle, Frank conducted dozens of focus groups for MSNBC and CNBC, including live sessions following each night of both party conventions and presidential debates. He was a primary night and election night commentator for The News with Brian Williams, and his 100 Days, 1000 Voices segments won a coveted Emmy Award in 2001.
Over the past few years, Frank has conducted focus group sessions for all three networks and two of the three cable news channels. Previously, he has conducted focus groups for The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, PBS, and the BBC. He was “imported” by the BBC earlier this year to create two short films on the British General Election and was also a consultant to the popular NBC drama The West Wing and HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.
When he is not consulting, Dr. Luntz can usually be found in front of a classroom. From 1989 until 1996, he was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at Harvard and George Washington University. An accomplished author, he has written op-ed pieces for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Times of London, The Financial Times, and The Washington Post. His new book, Killer Words: The New American Lexicon, will be published by Hyperion in 2006.
Frank graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science, and was named a Thouron fellow. He received his Doctorate in Politics at the age of 25 from Oxford University. He spoke for 24 straight hours as part of the Oxford Union Society's Guinness World Book of Records debate. In the spring of 1993, Frank was named a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, the second youngest individual ever to receive this honor. The football Frank designed in 1994 for Republicans to use on the campaign stump is on permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution.
Mark Shields
Mark Shields is a nationally known columnist and commentator with unmatched credentials as an analyst of the U.S. political system. He is best known for his work as moderator on CNN's Capital Gang where he debated policy issues with Robert Novak, Al Hunt, Kate O'Beirne, and Margaret Carlson.
Since 1979, Mark Shields has been writing his column on national politics for The Washington Post. The column is now distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate.
In 1987, the political analysis team of Mark Shields and David Gergen became a regular feature of The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The 1989, Political Almanac named Shields and Gergen the “best television pundits of the presidential election year.”
From 1993 to the Fall of 2001, the analysis team of Mark Shields and Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot has been on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, seen every Friday and during primaries, national conventions and elections. Shields now shares that feature with David Brooks, senior editor of The Weekly Standard.
Shields is also an author, whose book about the 1984 presidential campaign, On the Campaign Trail, has been praised as “funny,” “irreverent,” and “insightful” and for bringing that “race to a magnificent light.” As one reviewer wrote: “Mark Shields is the wittiest political analyst around, and he is frequently the most trenchant, fair-minded, and thoughtful.”
Before entering journalism, Shields helped manage political campaigns from the courthouse to the White House, in some thirty-eight states. In addition, he has taught American politics and the press at Harvard University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Shields was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts on May 25, 1937. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame and an honorable discharge from the United States Marine Corps. He is married to Ann Shields. He has lived in Washington, D.C. since 1964.
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