Michael McShane

Founded in 1951, The Charlottesville Committee on Foreign Relations (CCFR) is a civic, non-partisan organization dedicated to the promotion of informed discussion of American foreign policy and international affairs. It has achieved a distinguished record of bringing together concerned citizens in our area with leading authorities on world developments. The hallmark of CCFR is the creation of opportunities for in-depth exchanges on major international issues that increasingly affect our lives.

McShane Consulting is a Government Relations and Communications consulting firm with clients in Security, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Communications. Mr. McShane's clients include The Hawthorn Group, a trade association and government agencies. He founded and is President of Virginians for a Better Future (VBF) and was chief spokesman for VBF in their successful efforts in achieving their strategic business goals. McShane Consulting is presently working with the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) industry in defining its long term goals and objectives to create strategic and tactical communications plans in support of those goals and objectives.

Successfully developed, wrote and implemented a strategic plan that created a new Office of Political Affairs in support of the Congressional and Executive Branch public policy objectives and programs of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and their nearly 300 member companies. Those 300 member companies have sales of $2.1 trillion and employ approximately 14 million people world wide. Conducted individual meetings with the CEOs and senior executives of GMA member companies to brief them on the objectives and achievements of the program and to build policy and financial support for the program. Developed and presented briefings and presentations at the tri-annual Executive Conferences of the Board of Directors of GMA, including the 22 CEO’s of Fortune 100 companies, which resulted in the initial positive support and continued success of the program. These successes included increasing Board Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions by 250% in the first seven months; increasing Board participation by 300% and increasing GMA employee participation in the PAC from 15% to 62% in the same period. Created and led a team that wrote the specifications for a successful solicitation for the procurement an outside vendor to create the data base of the locations of the plants and facilities of our member companies. Lead responsibility for conducting contract negotiations and the transition from the old vendor to the new vendor. The new data base contains over 2,500 plants and facilities of over 175 GMA member companies. This data base has enabled 43 visits of Members of Congress to the plants and facilities of GMA member companies.

Lead responsibility for successfully turning around a troubled and money losing Government Relations program and making it successful and highly profitable. Cut employee turnover rate by 64%. Successfully bought in eleven new government relations clients to SmithBucklin. Created strategic government relations programs for all eleven (11) new clients by developing and presenting to the Boards and CEOs of those clients a through and systematic review of their existing government relations programs and recommending and implementing positive changes where appropriate. Successfully created new government relations programs for the nine (9) existing government relations clients following a rigorous and systematic review of their existing programs. Success for the clients from this review and the implantation of new government relations programs included full funding for a technology company involved with classified Arabic and Pharsi language translation and working with the FDA to develop and write legislative language for an amendment to FDA legislation creating a new Professional Certification program for hospital based health care counselors. Developed new and focused communications strategies designed to keep the clients better informed and to generate greater support for their government relations programs. Created and presented to the boards of the client associations and companies presentations on the legislative process, plans to achieve their legislative objectives and the success of their programs.

Founded The McShane Group, a profitable full service Government Relations and Communications firm with clients in international trade, international exchange programs, health care, energy, communications and education. Created and implemented Government Relations and public affairs programs for clients including programs that resulted in the achievement of the client’s public policy goals and objectives. Created and implemented a successful government relations program for a leading international steel company in connection with the importation of certain steel products. Briefed the CEO and his executive committee on the options for creating such a program, how to implement the program and how to judge the success of the program. Wrote reports for the senior management team and presented the case for the company to the Office of the U. S. Trade Representative (USTR), which resulted in a ruling from USTR in favor of the steel company. For a second client, The McShane Group developed and implemented a month long program for the first exchange program between the Russian Youth Baseball Federation and US Baseball, a program of Major League Baseball, which resulted in the first tour of the United States by the National Russian Junior Baseball Team. Arranged, organized and implemented meetings and communications programs for the team and the manufacturers of baseball equipment including Wilson and Louisville Slugger with Members of Congress including Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Commissioner Bud Selig, Commissioner of Major League Baseball. Successfully scheduled the appearance of the team on the Today Show

Lead TRW executive with responsibility for the development and implementation of Government Relations, Legislative and Public Affairs strategies for Human Resources (HR) issues including Health Care Reform, Medical Privacy Issues including the U.S. EU “Safe Harbor” negotiations, Taxation of Employee Health Benefits, ERISA, and Labor Policy Issues. In that capacity, created and chaired the Coalition to Preserve Health Benefits, an industry trade group representing 450 companies and organizations covering 35 million Americans that was successful in defeating the taxation of employer sponsored health benefits proposed under the Clinton Health Care Reform Initiative. The Coalition included both labor and management including the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, the United Auto Workers, the Chamber of Congress, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Business Roundtable, a Washington based organization made up of the CEOs of Fortune 50 companies. Prepared materials for meetings with Members of Congress and their staffs to discuss the issues involved and to build support for the position of the Coalition. Monitored legislative developments including attending hearings and mark up sessions of the responsible Committees and Sub-Committees, communicating the results of those hearings to the Coalition membership through written reports, live presentations and video conferences with Members of Congress and staff. Created, developed and implemented a communications and public affairs program including the writing of the material, the production of the “spots” and the purchasing of newspaper ads and radio and TV “spots.”

In 1998, Mr. McShane was selected as the University's Outstanding Alumni. He has served as Vice Chair of the Board of Visitors at East Carolina and on the Board of the Alumni Association.