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Widmeyer Social Media Bootcamp

Learn how to actively participate in and effectively contribute to today’s online conversations and social networks. Widmeyer’s Social Media Bootcamp offers you and your institution a roadmap to social media relations - an individualized half- or full-day training session customized to the needs and goals of up to six individuals from your staff. Learn more about this opportunity (PDF, 1.8Mb).

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Ben Finzel / Senior Vice President

I’m a PR guy: I love the business of communications. Perhaps it’s my inquisitive nature or the fact that I’m a DC native and have spent most of my life around conversation and communication. Whatever the reason, I always want to know what’s happening and why.

I’ve spent my entire career – nearly 20 years – in Washington, D.C. From service as a Press Secretary and Legislative Director on Capitol Hill to a presidential appointment at the U.S. Department of Energy and twelve years at two international communications firms, I have always been passionate about identifying and executing the most effective solutions to public policy and communications challenges.

As head of Widmeyer Public Affairs, I work with a top-notch team that understands both how to engage at the nexus of public policy and communications and how to effectively and efficiently deliver results. Our clients benefit from our independent thinking and we benefit from the opportunity to do great work with great people.

Connect with me:

Biography:

Ben Finzel brings more than 20 years of communications and public affairs experience in Washington to his role as Senior Vice President and head of the firm’s public affairs practice.  

At Widmeyer, Finzel manages all aspects of the firm’s public affairs activities and serves as account manager for the firm’s multi-million dollar effort to develop and launch a national public education campaign on pool and spa safety for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).  In addition, Finzel provides strategic counsel and insight to clients including ClimateWorks Foundation and the National Association for the Self-Employed.

Finzel’s career has focused on energy and environmental communications and policy, and included involvement in many of the most significant energy and environmental issues of the past two decades. He is an award-winning communications counselor having won a Silver Anvil and an IABC Bronze Quill in his career.

Previously, Finzel was a Senior Vice President in the Washington office of Fleishman-Hillard. During the course of his more than nine years there, he provided advice and counsel on media, corporate communications, stakeholder development and strategic partnerships to clients such as Exelon, PG&E, Mid American Energy, Chevron, P&G, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, UPS, Common Ground Alliance, AARP, American Trucking Associations, American Wind Energy Association, International Platinum Association, Portland Cement Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Departments of State, Transportation and Homeland Security.

An experienced manager, Finzel has led media relations teams on the launch of a worldwide conservation program for Worldwide Fund for Nature, on the release of the Combat Climate Change report in Washington, and on the first publicly accessible hydrogen refueling station in the United States for Shell Hydrogen. He has also directed national consumer education campaigns on tire safety (for the rubber manufacturing industry), dig safety (for the underground utility infrastructure community) and energy efficiency (for the Alliance to Save Energy).

As a presidential appointee at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Finzel managed the communications operation for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, developing and promoting the “Clean Energy for the 21st Century” brand that was used in all communications and outreach activities.

As a senior account supervisor at Edelman Public Relations, Finzel worked with clients such as SCJohnson, Microsoft, United Foods, DLJdirect and the Fox Television program “America’s Most Wanted” on media relations, corporate communications and positioning programs.

In his legislative and communications staff positions for two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Finzel provided advice and counsel on legislative issues ranging from clean air policy and Superfund clean-up to energy, environmental and science policy and operation of the DOE’s national laboratories. 

Finzel is a cum laude graduate of Texas Tech University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history. He is a former college radio news director, and is also conversant in German.

Contact information:

  • 1129 20th St NW, Suite 200,
    Washington, DC 20036
    Phone 202.667.0901
    Fax 202.667.0902