BATON ROUGE – Washington, DC-based Sanderson Strategies Group, which represents major U.S. sports, business, political, and non-profit clients, announced Baton Rouge strategist Robert Munson will partner with SSG as Senior Advisor and will serve as Executive Director of Sports Operations in a newly dedicated sports division, SSG Sports.
Munson, an 18-year veteran in communication strategy, said the partnership is in addition to his work through his own communications strategy firm, representing clients in business and politics throughout Louisiana.
“This partnership is very exciting for me personally, in part because it is a bit of a different animal,” Munson said. “I absolutely love what I do and who I represent and will continue to represent. Some of my clients and I have been together for a dozen years or more. That’s not going to change. This new partnership gives me another outlet for my work, a national presence, and the chance to collaborate with the best collection of strategic minds in the business.”
Sanderson Strategies Group has worked more than 24 years with the Commissioner’s Office of Major League Baseball, and with 22 of 30 MLB teams, providing public strategy and tactics, innovation research, media training, public concerns management, and has developed or directed Commissioner initiatives for new ballparks, female audiences, diversity, and philanthropy. SSG has also represented NFL, NBA, National (Women’s) Pro Fastpitch, NCAA and other teams, coaches, and players.
SSG Sports will offer a range of strategic services, including brand and reputation positioning; crisis management and communications; media training; public issue campaigns; media relations; and, charitable planning. SSG Sports clients include sports leagues, municipalities, universities, ownership groups, professional and collegiate team executives, coaches, and athletes.
“The culture and business of sports is being examined and scrutinized at levels no one could have imagined even a few years ago,” said SSG President Len Sanderson, a Louisiana native, former journalist and later campaign director and first chief-of-staff for Gov. Charles E. “Buddy” Roemer. “The financial and emotional investment in professional and collegiate sports requires that leagues and teams, as well as their executives, general managers and athletic directors, coaches and players, all have public strategies.
“Robert brings a wealth of experience to SSG as a strategist and knows how to build brands, protect reputations, and promote excellence,” Sanderson said. “His understanding of communications coupled with his ability to translate complex information into compelling and accessible stories connecting brands and audiences, greatly expand SSG’s capacity to personally represent the interests of all our clients – sports and non-sports – and their public positions.”
Sanderson also announced that Denise Michaels, an executive at SSG for 17 years, following a seven-year stint in the public relations office of Major League Baseball, will lead the new division as Senior Vice President and Chief of Sports Strategy. She will oversee new business and develop sports strategies, as well as continue to work closely with current league, team and player clientele.
“Obviously, I love having a permanent presence in Louisiana,” Sanderson said. “I consider it the home to some of the best athletes and sports organizations around. We intend to make Baton Rouge the base for our operations throughout the South, providing the best national, cutting-edge representation available to professional and collegiate administrators and executives, coaches, and athletes.
“The SSG brand has always been based on providing very personalized, confidential, and direct services to a select clientele,” Sanderson also said. “SSG Sports customers can depend upon Denise and Robert to listen to and understand their specific needs, and to work with them to design tailored public strategies that allow them to tell their own stories their own way.”
SSG also represents Fortune 500, non-profit organizations and associations, environmental, agriculture, and education clients, museums, start-up companies, CEOs, public interest organizations, advocacy groups, and public personalities, entertainers, and politicians.
