Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is Director of Internal Communications of Webcor, a San Francisco-based general contractor. He was previously principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. His clients have included Intel, Sears, PepsiCo, Petrobras, Aetna, John Deere, Manulife Financial, Hewitt Associates, General Mills, USAA, Applied Materials, Symantec, Raytheon, The World Bank, Petrobras, Amdocs, Disney, FedEx, Freescale Semiconductor, The International Monetary Fund, National Geographic, The American Red Cross and Monsanto.

Before forming Holtz Communication + Technology in February 1996, Shel was senior communications consultant and the communications practice leader for Alexander & Alexander Consulting Group in San Francisco, California. (A&ACG has since been acquired by Aon Consulting.)

Shel has more than 30 years of organizational communications experience in both corporate and consulting environments. He is experienced in employee communications, compensation and benefits communications, corporate public relations, media relations, financial communications, investor relations, and marketing communications. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, communicating business initiatives, and communications research.

While Shel excels in all aspects of organizational communication and focuses on the online dimensions of these communication disciplines, he is particularly passionate about strategic employee communications and crisis communications. Before joining A&ACG, Shel was the director of corporate communications for Allergan, Inc., a Fortune 400 pharmaceutical company. At Allergan, Shel directed a staff of six and a budget of $2.5 million; he had overall responsibility for global media relations, corporate public relations, employee communications, and financial communications. He held the same title at Mattel, Inc., where he was responsible for employee communications, the organization's annual report, and regional media relations. He also has worked for William M. Mercer, Inc., ARCO, and Transamerica Financial Corporation.

In addition to his consulting and development work, Shel is a regular speaker on topics surrounding the application of online technology to strategic organizational communication. He speaks regularly at IABC and Ragan Communication conferences. He also has been on programs for the International Quality and Productivity Center, The American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, the American Gas Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts, the Association of California Water Agencies, and the Western Pension & Benefits Conference, among others. He also spoke regularly on the Lexis-Nexis touring seminar, "Communicating in a Wired World."

Shel is a five-time winner of IABC's Gold Quill award (most recently winning in 1997 for external Web sites), and was named IABC/Los Angeles's Communicator of the Year in 1988. Shel served six years on IABC's executive board, two as director of U.S. District 6 and four as a director-at-large. While a director-at-large, he held the Technology portfolio, among others. During his term on the board, he served three times as a member of the executive committee. He has also served as chapter president for IABC/Los Angeles and in a variety of other volunteer positions in IABC at the chapter, district and international levels. Shel earned his IABC accreditation (ABC/Accredited Business Communicator) in 1984.

In 2005, Shel was named an IABC Fellow, the highest honor IABC confers on its members.

His other memberships include a role as a founding research fellow and advisory board member of the Society for New Communication Research" and as a member of the advisory board of The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.

Shel has applied online technology to his communication efforts on behalf of companies and clients since the mid-1980s. His most recent book is "Tactical Transparency," co-written with John C. Havens and published by Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley. Shel is also the co-author of "How to Do Everything with Podcasting," co-written with Neville Hobson and published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill and "Blogging for Business," co-written with Ted Demopoulos and published by Kaplan. Earlier books include "Corporate Conversations," a guide to employee communications, published by Amacom. "Public Relations on the Net," published by AMACOM; and "The Intranet Advantage," published by Ziff-Davis Press. He also wrote the manuals, "Communication and Technology" and "Communicator's Guide to Intranets," published by Ragan Communications and "Writing for the Wired World," published by IABC.

Shel graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in Journalism from California State University, Northridge, in 1976.