Richard Torrenzano is chairman and chief executive of The Torrenzano Group, a strategic communications and high-stakes issues management firm specializing in building and protecting corporate reputations, enhancing shareholder value and helping clients grow their businesses.

The Torrenzano Group helps organizations take control of how they are perceived™. For additional information visit: www.torrenzano.com

New Book set for October 2011: The new book Digital Assassination: Protecting your Reputation, Brand or Business Against Online Attacks, authored by Richard Torrenzano and former White House speechwriter Mark Davis will be published by St. Martin’s Press in October 2011. Visit:  www.digitalassassinationbook.com

The book reveals how the Internet is used to destroy brands, reputations, even lives . . . and provides a course of actions to turn the table on digital assassins. It is the preeminent work on Reputation Management in the Internet and digital age.

Background: Rich has counseled chief executives and boards of international corporations in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well as several heads of state.  He has extensive hands on experience in the world’s financial markets.  Throughout a period of rapidly developing public policy issues, historic levels of market activity, unprecedented change in world affairs and intense media coverage, Rich planned and directed the New York Stock Exchange’s worldwide activities and programs.

For nearly a decade, he was a member of the Big Board’s management (policy) and executive (operations) committees.

Global Crisis Expert: A recognized global expert in crisis management, he managed the public strategies for significant global financial crises, including the market crash, October 1987, and the1998 Federal Reserve Bank’s $4 billion recapitalization of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), financed by a consortium of 14 of the world’s largest financial institutions.  His counsel and work helped restore confidence in the NYSE and U.S. capital markets.

Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, he provided counsel to top executives at Merrill Lynch, Lloyd’s of London, Nasdaq Stock Market, National Association of Securities Dealers, American Stock Exchange and Security Traders Association – all significantly affected by the crisis.

Rich developed and implemented public strategies to deal with other significant market moments including insider trading scandals, corporate mergers, acquisitions and IPOs, corporate governance and shareholder activism issues, bankruptcies, regulatory and disciplinary actions, and digital trading.

International Scope: At the request of the President of the United States – following the Bush-Gorbachev Malta Summit - Rich was instrumental in negotiating and planning the landmark NYSE USSR-US Moscow seminar on financial markets.  It was attended by several hundred academic, business, financial, and government leaders in the Soviet Union.  The program served as a catalyst for the opening of new exchanges in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

He negotiated and planned the historic China-US symposium on financial markets in Beijing.  Those meetings with key government and business galvanized the opening of the stock exchange in Shanghai, moving China towards a new economic system. Concurrent with those activities, Rich coordinated White House-related activities for the NYSE chief executive officer - in his capacity as chairman of President Reagan’s Board of Advisors on Private Sector Initiatives.

Corporate Positions: Rich also served as director and senior vice president-corporate affairs and a member of the Executive Management Committee for SmithKline Beecham, Plc. SB, which was one of the world’s leading healthcare companies with more than 300 products marketed in 130 countries and revenues exceeding $14 billion. SB merged with Glico in 2000.