Focus

Don Goldberg brings more than 25 years of Washington experience in communications, public affairs and crisis management to Qorvis Communications, and leads Qorvis’ crisis communications practice. His background includes work as a professional journalist prior to holding senior positions in both the legislative and executive branches of government.

As a Special Assistant to President Clinton, he was an integral member of the crisis management team, and was responsible for developing strategic responses to investigations and helped pioneer the integration of communications and legal strategy. Goldberg has been described by the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, as “the White House expert on congressional investigations,” and National Journal called him “a key player on President Clinton’s 25-hour-per-day damage control team.”  In addition to his crisis work, he manages both public affairs and public relations teams for a variety of clients, and provides crisis and Congressional testimony training as part of the Qorvis Media Training Center program.

Pertinent Background & Relationships

• Helped guide dozens of corporate clients through difficult communications challenges, including General Motors, IBM, Adobe, Koch Industries, Double- Click, 3M, Advance Auto Parts, and Horizon Airlines.
• Involved in responding to almost every major national political scandal since the mid-1980s, ranging from the Iran/Contra affair to the Lewinsky scandal.
• Lead democratic strategist on the investigation of the events at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and managed the Clinton Administration’s responses to investigations of the White House Travel Office, the FBI files and campaign finance abuse.
• Spent 10 years on Capitol Hill rising from investigator to Deputy Chief of Staff of the House Government Operations Committee, the primary investigative committee in congress.
• Goldberg began his career in Washington in 1981 as an investigative reporter with Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jack Anderson.
• Frequent guest speaker on crisis communications, including a recent address to the Harvard Business School (HBS) through its Outstanding Speakers Series, a year-long program designed to expose the Public Speaking Club and the rest of the HBS community to some of the greatest speakers in the world.
• Serves on the board of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association  

Education

Goldberg attended Northwestern University’s Medill Graduate School of Journalism and received his Masters’ in Communications from American University, where he has also taught investigative reporting to graduate students.