History
Biography of Keith Nahigian, President
For the past decade, Keith Nahigian has fulfilled
communications objectives for a wealth of prominent
individuals, companies and governmental entities.
Keith has a proven track record of success, including
the design of political campaigns and the development
of crisis response strategies. Among his services
are image management and enhancement, media strategy,
event planning and recruiting and training of communications
teams.
Keith began his career in the business of communications while serving in the White House as Vice President Dan Quayle's Lead Advance Representative, which involved managing the Vice President's budget, maximizing media coverage, coordinating his schedule, arranging transportation and security; and managing logistical arrangements with foreign, state and local governments. In addition, Keith was responsible for the planning and preparation of events, trips and trade missions all over the world. These events included, among many others, a foreign dignitary award ceremony aboard an aircraft carrier off the coast of Japan, the signing of a peace treaty in El Salvador, political campaign speeches and Gulf War victory celebrations.
Following his tour of duty in the White House, Keith served on Christine Todd Whitman's 1993 and 1997 New Jersey gubernatorial campaigns. As the Director of Candidate Operations, Keith was responsible for campaign strategy, the supervision of all public and media appearances and the production and direction of all national appearances, which included commercials, inaugural events and town hall meetings. Keith trained a 24-person communications team, developed field operations and strategies, managed a $1.2 million campaign budget and designed Governor Whitman's public image.
After her victory in the 1993 gubernatorial race, Governor Whitman appointed Keith as the Deputy Director of Communications, Director of Special Projects. Following another campaign victory in 1997, Governor Whitman appointed Keith Director of Advance. In these positions, Keith created media strategies to publicize and build support for major policy initiatives, directed trade missions to foreign nations, trained and managed a 15-member staff and produced all public events, such as the World Cup soccer tournament, the visit of Pope John Paul II to New Jersey and the Republican response to President Bill Clinton's State of the Union address.
Between the 1993 and 1997 New Jersey gubernatorial campaigns, Keith worked on the 1996 presidential campaigns of Steve Forbes and Senator Bob Dole as the Director of Candidate Operations and the Deputy Director of Candidate Operations/Director of Advance, respectively. As such, Keith managed budgets of $12 million, trained and supervised large communications teams (25 to 80 staff members) and coordinated the logistical movements of the candidates, their staffs and the traveling press corps throughout the United States. In addition, Keith designed and produced all national media events, including the award-winning arrival ceremony for the nominee of the Republican convention, eight bus tours and the "96-Hour Tour" which reached 36 cities nationwide.
Following his return to work for Governor Whitman from 1997 to 1999, Keith was asked to join Senator John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign. As Director of Strategic Planning and Senior Political Advisor, Keith invented the thematic aspects of the campaign, managed a $7 million budget, designed all aspects of Senator McCain's book tour, created a media strategy to disseminate major policy initiatives, and served as a liaison between the policy, political, press and fundraising components of the campaign. In addition, Keith recruited, trained and managed a 50-person staff; coordinated the logistical movements of Senator McCain, his family, his staff and a large traveling press corps; created and implemented a media program directed toward specific states; and designed and produced unique national events that graced the covers of the New York Times, Washington Post, Time magazine, Newsweek magazine and other national news publications.
In May 2000, Keith established Nahigian Strategies, LLC in order to better serve his corporate, governmental and individual clients. To date, Nahigian Strategies has advised clients such as CXO Media, the Kanter Family Foundation, the Amelior Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Labor, Merrill Lynch, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Multicity.com, the SANS Institute, U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, and the Center for Internet Security, on implementing national media plans, developing national earned media strategies and producing and directing large media events.