Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. Shel brings to his assignments nearly 35 years of organizational communications experience in both corporate and consulting environments.

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. Other positions include director of corporate communications for Allergan, Inc., a Fortune 400 pharmaceutical company, and at Mattel, Inc. He also has worked for William M. Mercer, Inc., ARCO and Transamerica Financial Corporation.

Shel is a regular speaker on topics surrounding the application of online technology to strategic organizational communication. 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, and was named IABC/Los Angeles’s Communicator of the Year in 1988. Shel served six years on IABC’s executive boardShel 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.

Shel is a founding research fellow and advisory board member of the Society for New Communication Research” and membership on serves on the advisory board of The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.

His most recent book is “Tactical Transparency,” co-written with John C. Havens. Shel is also the co-author of “How to Do Everything with Podcasting,” and “Blogging for Business.” Earlier books include “Corporate Conversations,” a guide to employee communications, published by Amacom. “Public Relations on the Net;” and “The Intranet Advantage,” publshed by Ziff-Davis Press. He also wrote the manuals, “Communication and Technology” and “Communicator’s Guide to Intranets” and “Writing for the Wired World,” published by IABC.