History
Ed Bergstraesser, owner and proprietor of Bergstraesser Strategies, is a public affairs and corporate communications strategist and writer with more than 20 years of experience in public relations, corporate social responsibility, issues management and community relations.
Prior to establishing his consultancy, Bergstraesser was external affairs director at AT&T for a dozen years, handling government, public and community affairs for the company, including a wide range of activities, including grass roots campaign efforts to direct work with the AT&T Foundation on corporate social responsibility. Before that, he worked with public relations agencies, not-for-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies, including United Airlines and MCI. In addition, he’s directed national and grass roots public awareness programs, most notably an award-winning on-line voter registration drive, bringing together public and private entities to register 75,000 citizens in the nascent stages of Internet commerce and advocacy - and garnering 300 million impressions along the way, as well as a Smithsonian Award.
Ed maintains executive board membership in Parks and Trails of New York, Walkway over the Hudson, Bardavon Performing Arts Center, and Ulster Performing Arts Center. A winner of seven industry awards, he’s also actively involved in a host of other corporate communications and public affairs associations.
His first job out of school was with The Chicago Reporter, an award-winning, investigative monthly on urban affairs and race relations. He has a political science degree from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Ed’s consultancy has a significant presence in the Northeast and Midwest.