Biography

Dan Keeney, APR, is the president of Texas PR firm DPK Public Relations. While Dan

specializes in crisis communications, crisis planning and media training for clients in the energy, health-care and professional services sectors, he has worked on an array of client challenges…from complex corporate restructurings to product introductions and from international crisis communications response to grassroots engagement efforts.

A 20-year veteran of the communications field, Dan is a four-time winner of the public relations profession's highest honor - the Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America. The programs that won those awards illustrate the power of strategic public relations planning and expert public relations implementation in changing attitudes and behaviors:

• Building public support and appreciation for Intel Corporation while convincing lawmakers to grant the company a tax break that saved it $200 million (PRSA members can see the case study here);
  
• Convincing Oregonians to bring competition to an electricity market that boasted the nation's lowest rates (PRSA members can see the case study here);
  
• Helping protect the health of Keiko, the killer whale who starred in the movie "Free Willy" (PRSA members can see the case study here);
  
• Keeping a small nonprofit Florida hospital from a being swallowed up by a large health-care corporation in a hostile takeover.

Before establishing DPK Public Relations, Dan was the general manager of a large Houston public relations firm. Dan also practiced high tech public relations and public affairs for public relations firms in Portland, Ore. He got his start in public relations with Ketchum Public Relations in Pittsburgh. Before his public relations career, Dan spent 10 years as a broadcast journalist, which is especially valuable for clients needing media interview training or public speaker training.

In addition to his work at DPK Public Relations, Dan is the president of the Houston Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

He is a graduate of the University of Colorado's School of Journalism and has been married to his wife, Julie, for 20 years.