Experts Matter. Find Yours.

The Many Faces of Expertise: Theres more than one way to define an expert!

As the lead researcher at ExpertFile I spend a lot of my time thinking about the nature of expertise. I often get asked about the criteria that we use to identify experts, and it’s actually a very difficult concept to pin down. One of my favourite services that we provide to our clients is sitting down with them and helping them articulate what exactly “expertise” means to them. Sometimes this is an easy question, sometimes it is very, very difficult. The fact remains that there is no definition of expertise that perfectly encapsulates every organization’s requirements. How do you begin to select your experts to showcase? Well, there are many different ways of exhibiting expertise. A lot of our clients are higher education institutions who are seeking to promote their academics. The evidence demonstrating their unique experience in their respective fields are easily encapsulated in their academic credentials, awards, grants, publications and professional affiliations. Academics are often at the cutting edge of their fields, and are very experienced telling meaningful stories about them. If a reporter is writing a story about the mountains of Pluto, then an astronomer who has dedicated their lives to the study of extra-Neptunian objects is a perfect choice. By contrast, expertise in the corporate realm is more based on personal experience than academic credentials. This significantly differentiates corporate expert marketing programs from higher education. Although education and credentials remain important, it is generally more graded with a personal experience with the topic at hand. For example, a senior engineer at Google (with extensive media experience) would obviously be a tier A source for explaining the science behind contemporary web search engines, despite potentially having no university education in computer science! (Note: Some fields in computer science, such as machine learning, have a much more academic basis). Both the astronomer and computer scientist are clearly experts, but the means that we used to evaluate their expertise are very different. I’m sure that you can see that both academics and practitioners have meaningful comments to add to news reporters. At ExpertFile, we think that the most important skill an expert can have is the ability to distill their domain-specific knowledge into a compelling, relevant and meaningful story. This ability to tell stories transcends experience, or credentials. A Harvard professor may be a nobel prize winner, but unless he can effectively communicate his research to the media and the public, he will not be perceived as an expert. In contrast, a professor at a local community college may have less august credentials, but if they can tell a good story, then they will engage with the public and media much more effectively. In fact, in some cases “lowly” adjuncts bring vibrant life-experiences and direct understanding of the real world applications of academic theory, and may therefore eclipse the atrophied viewpoints of some tenured faculty isolated for decades in the academy. So at ExpertFile, we feel that a balanced representation of both academics and practitioners at every level is crucial for creating a balanced marketplace of experts that is a valuable resource for all our users. Although our platform contains thousands of academics, some from top flight institutions, we also list thousands of incredibly credible, engaging experts with real world, contemporary experience that can often eclipse that of tenured faculty. We are very proud of our network, and curate an active and vibrant community with a diversity of different voices and perspectives on topics of breaking news interest. We don’t open our network to anyone, the ability to distill meaningful and engaging content for others is crucial, so those who are only shilling a product or self-promoting are not welcome. Some people think that only academics belong on an expert network, but at ExpertFile we believe that would exclude many people with extensive expertise. Similarly, it would be the height of elitism for us to restrict our database to tenured academics from top-tier universities. This would do our users a great disservice by removing those voices with a perspectives gained from practical experience.

Part 2: Collaborating with Faculty Experts: A How-To Guide for Marketing Departments & Deans

In my last blog post, I shared some strategies that marketing departments can use to collaborate with their faculty experts (Read Part I). This post will reveal the final five principles that will help you collaborate with your faculty and get better results. 6. Show Quick Wins to Get Momentum As the old saying goes, “nothing succeeds like success.” We all like to back winners. So while you won’t immediately see massive changes across the board on day one, it’s important to show progress. Expert marketing programs deliver significant results over the long run but you must communicate the early wins you achieve in the first few months to create internal momentum. Remember it’s not just about the numbers. It’s just as important to provide qualitative information on the market interactions you are generating for your experts. For instance look at these early indicators: Contribution – Who’s participating in contributing content to your expert center? Look at key types of files such as publications, videos and presentations. Engagement – Also consider sending stats out to your experts showing which profiles get the most amount of web traffic. Other Results – Speak to activities where you used your expert content to do outbound story pitches to media. Also mention coverage you are getting, or speaking engagements that resulted from inquires received from your expert profiles. For instance, one of our ExpertFile clients, very soon after launching their expert center received an inquiry from a major engineering publication for one of their professors, a direct result of their participation in the Expert Center.  Communicating this to other faculty drives engagement. Tip: Send out a quick “Leaderboard” email showing the top five or ten experts who rank highest in completed profiles. This public recognition will get noticed. 7. Opt-In your Experts For Various Research, Writing & Speaking Contributions The famous “help me, help you” quote from Jerry Maguire sums up the importance of collaborating effectively with your experts. They are very busy people; meeting them halfway will ensure mutual success. Get some face time: Emails with requests to send information often will go ignored.  Instead invest the time to set up a quick meeting at their office to review and update their expert profile to make sure it’s up to date. Locate new projects that are in progress such as publications or speaking engagements and set a date to check-in with them. Identify Opportunities: Identify their key research interests and passions to see where they can help in contributing to the overall content mix. Organize Your Content Contributions: Build out a list of key areas for each expert where they can “opt-in” to contribute to your expert marketing programs. Think about various areas they can help as a researcher, writer, or speaker for both internal and external events. Remember, there are many jobs to be done across campus that go way beyond media interviews. Identify who can write blog posts, contribute to content in a research capacity, or even review story pitches. Track these commitments and follow up with your experts and you will see the payoff. Many experts want to help, but it’s important to approach them and organize your interactions with them in an efficient manner for success. Content planning frameworks are a great way to track this information. 8. Put Your Experts in the Spotlight Want to see better results from your media relations efforts? Organize your experts based on areas of interest. Once you’ve curated that list, you can align your experts with breaking news events and other opportunities on your editorial calendar. Here’s how it looks: Set up a “Topic Cloud”: List all the areas of interest that your faculty experts want to speak on. Make sure the terms you use are relevant to what journalists are searching for on Google. Start at a high level and then drill down for a structured taxonomy of terms. For instance if you have a medical expert who speaks about ebola you also should index them under the term “infectious disease” as journalists also use this search term when looking for sources. Align Your Experts with an Editorial Calendar: An editorial calendar allows you to plan content well ahead of time so you can promote upcoming research, publications and other announcements. Mapping experts to these events in advance will deliver better quality output and engagement. For example, there are always stories that recur every year, things like tornadoes, taxation, gas prices and the like. Preparing for these stories allows you to have your angle ready, along with creative assets such as images and videos that will engage targeted audiences. With this work already done, you will have time to attend to other pressing matters. Get Ready to Pounce on Breaking News: The benefits of real-time marketing and helping journalists write the next paragraph of a breaking story are immense, but this is a game of speed. Matching the right expert to the right media opportunity requires this type of pre-planning to identify who the go-to people are within your organization. 9. Develop a Scorecard: Identify Some The Expert Metrics You want to Measure Here are the categories you need to pay attention to as you evaluate your progress as an organization: Contribution – Show stats on how you are seeing growth in published content assets. Track the growth in areas such as the number of published expert profiles, % completion of profiles and growth of published content in categories such as videos, PowerPoint presentations, and whitepapers. Engagement – Ask your digital team to provide stats on the number of profile views each expert is receiving monthly. Try ranking some of your top experts and send out a note congratulating them. Also try to spot trends such as traffic spikes related to topics that may be of interest to the media. These metrics can help you decide what topics you focus on when producing content or promoting your experts to journalists. Inquiries – Requests to contact your experts can come from a variety of audiences, and all can be valuable for internal departments ranging from media relations and advancement to recruiting. It’s important to evaluate what types of requests you are receiving. You can sort and route these requests more efficiently with an online form.  Some suggested categories you can track include: Media Inquiries Speaking Inquiries Expert Witness Inquiries Student or Parent Inquiries (classify by type i.e. Graduate Students, Foreign Students) Donor Inquiries Partner Inquiries Research Collaboration Inquiries Results – While it can be difficult to close the loop on all requests that you generate from your expert marketing efforts, try linking the source of your inquiries back to results. For instance, if you are doing clip reports, highlight specific media coverage that resulted from your efforts. You should also look at other important data such as student inquiries and donor connections that are made through your expert marketing programs. This will help you justify the return on investment and perhaps allow you to secure additional budget and resources from various groups in the organization who benefit. 10. Make Your Experts Feel Special: Don’t Forget Rewards and Incentives Anyone running a successful expert marketing program will tell you that it’s important to embrace some of the “softer” people skills to get results. It is essential to provide feedback and recognition to contributors to keep them motivated to help you. Remember that your experts are in constant demand, so you are competing for their most limited resource – their time. Here are some key things you should consider when working with your experts: Be Visible: Walk the campus and take an active interest in the work your experts are doing. Face-to-face meetings are an important part of enlisting support. Educate Them on Their Value as Experts: Help your experts understand how their contributions can impact areas related to media coverage, student enrolment, donor and alumni relations, and government and corporate sponsorships. Offer Assistance: Help them manage their online presence in your expert center. Make it as simple as possible to update content such as presentations, videos and speaking engagements. Recognize Key Contributions: Send personal notes to experts to thank them for their help. You can also do a shout out via email to a list of key contributors.

Part 1: Collaborating with Faculty Experts: A How-To Guide for Marketing Departments & Deans

“I don’t have time to do this.” “I don’t think I’m the right expert.” “My subject area is too specific.” Have you ever approached a faculty member with an opportunity to speak to the media or perhaps speak at an event, only to hear responses like these? Asking certain faculty members to help serve as experts can be challenging. While it’s becoming more widely accepted by faculty that responding to such requests is a great way to build their personal reputation – as well as the institution’s – there is still work to be done in this area. With my experiences I wanted to share some useful tips to help you better collaborate with your faculty and get more results: 1. Walk the Halls: Stay Connected to Important Faculty Research & Publications Faculty play a key role in helping you tell compelling stories to a variety of audiences such as media, prospective donors and students. Yet it’s amazing how many communications people are disconnected from important discoveries their experts are working on. They get caught up in day-to-day events and struggle to find time to walk the campus. The first step in collaborating with your faculty is showing them you care. Make yourself approachable as a resource to help them communicate their stories and you’ll see dramatic results. While it may be tough, it is worth the time investment. 2. Take Inventory: Assess Which Experts Can Be Most Valuable in Helping You Engage Various Audiences With so many faculty members across the campus involved in a wide range of activities, it’s important to develop a framework that identifies who you should be working with. While faculty have deep subject-matter expertise, not all are suited to helping with certain engagements such as broadcast media interviews. To better assess your faculty look at these key factors: Credibility Does the expert have a deep understanding of their focus area? How respected are they among their peers? Have they conducted research in this area? Have they been published? Have they spoken at conferences or received awards for their work? Relevance Is their field of research relevant to various audiences such as Media, Prospective Students, Donors and Partners? Engagement How are their writing skills? Do they have experience with public speaking to various audiences? Can they conduct an interview with a reporter? Are they willing to participate or get media training? Responsiveness Do they understand the significant value they can contribute in helping you build your institution’s reputation? Are they comfortable with being in the spotlight? Can they be available on short notice (within hours) for media interviews? Are they interested in building their own personal brand? 3. Get Alignment: Get Senior Leadership on the Bus Consulting with Faculty Deans and other leaders on the campus will help you gain important support for your efforts to work more with faculty. Identifying their objectives at a program level will help you ensure that your work isn’t viewed as another “make work” exercise for faculty. Show them how your work with faculty experts will have potential to impact the following: Brand reputation in the community and among peers Media coverage Increased student enrolment Better Alumni engagement Increased donations to the school Government and research funding Corporate partnerships 4. Tap into Peer-to-Peer Power: Focus on Faculty Evangelists We all know who our “go-to” faculty are. The people who will enthusiastically help you try out some new approaches. These are the faculty who are doing great research but also can tell a great story and are respected among their colleagues. Identify a manageable group (a range of 3-6 experts is a good number to start). Assess them using the criteria we discuss in point #2. Then get these select experts to invest a little time with you to work on topic strategies and content development. Explain to them what you are trying to achieve and listen to their feedback. Getting their support, and helping them develop their content and stories is the key to success. As evangelists, they can be vital to getting buy-in across the campus. 5. “Opt-In” your Experts: Look for Different Types of Contribution While media coverage is a big focus for many organizations it often tends to dominate the discussion about experts. Think about the ways your experts can contribute and help you tell your story to a variety of audiences beyond media (see point #3). Faculty can be engaged in a broad spectrum of activities such as: Television Radio Print Research on specific topics Blog posts Podcasts Speaking at conferences Speaking at student recruiting events Attending or speaking at alumni events Attending or speaking at donor events Build a “Contributions List” that outlines activities where you may need support and get faculty to opt-in. Getting this agreement in advance allows you to better assess where you have “bench strength” to plan for specific projects. At the end of the day, you won’t get 100% of the faculty to jump on board, but we have seen that a good plan and collaborative communication raises engagement and participation. READ PART II of Collaborating with Faculty Experts: A How-To Guide for Organizations.

Want to get more media engagement? Hire a former journalist.

Last week we announced the arrival of a former award-winning journalist, Conway Fraser who is ExpertFile’s new media advisor. I owe some of our clients for my introduction to Conway. About six months ago, some of our clients were singing the praises of a former journalist with a unique approach to media coaching with a variety of corporate, healthcare and higher education clients. I had the pleasure of sitting in on a workshop session that he delivered earlier this summer, and was instantly hooked. As the session unfolded, it became obvious that Conway’s approach to storytelling is uniquely enriched by his journalistic experience. I’ve always had a profound respect for reporters who have been in the trenches, producing credible, engaging stories on tight deadlines. While journalists receive some accolades, (Conway has a Gemini-Award for his work in TV, the Canadian equivalent to the Emmys) it remains a craft that is under-appreciated. Journalists are at the whim of the 24 hour news cycle, under huge pressure to file credibly researched stories in record time. And sadly, as the market increasingly moves from broadcast dollars to digital dimes, news outlets are squeezing their journalists even further as too many of their colleagues depart the profession. While disturbing, this trend is the new reality. While technology is largely to blame for this trend, we can also see ways that technology can help journalists. It’s one of the reasons we created ExpertFile – to help journalists quickly find relevant and credible expert sources. It’s clear why Conway and I hit it off right away. He was instantly drawn to our platform and the obvious benefits it provides to journalists. We also share the belief that there are even more ways ExpertFile can help them. In his short time with us, Conway has already helped us envision some exciting new ideas for our technology and professional services platform that will benefit both journalists and our enterprise clients who promote their experts to the media. He will also be producing some important content related to best practices here on the ExpertFile Blog that will surely appeal to many of our clients. There’s nothing quite like having a seasoned journalist with over 20 years experience in national broadcast radio and TV around to keep you on your toes. I can’t wait to see what Conway and our fellow ExpertFilers end up producing together. Please join me in welcoming Conway to the ExpertFile community. Let me know if we can make an introduction!

Part 1: How Duke University doubled their media hits by showcasing faculty

In the February 2015 issue of CASE Currents, Steve Hartsoe, a Senior Editor at Duke University and former Editor for the Associated Press, shares some powerful strategies for working with experts on campus. This article is a must read for any organization looking to build reputation through more focused media relations. Now you might be thinking that Duke is an already renowned university with an extensive network of media contacts so this stuff is easy for them. Not true. Doubling your media hits isn’t easy for any organization. Duke made some major improvements that set them up as a go-to destination for journalists to find credible, relevant sources. However, even implementing just a few of their ideas could drive some big results for your organization – without having to blow out the size of your marketing team or budget. Spoiler alert. The Duke strategy centers on being more strategic and collaborating better with faculty experts. The best practices that the Duke media relations team employed should inspire any organization that wants to generate more coverage. Whether you are looking for media visibility to help drive student enrolment, alumni giving, or corporate partnerships, there are valuable lessons to be found in this article. For the full article check out the January/February issue of CASE Currents at www.case.org. Please note you will need a subscription to view. So what’s going on at Duke that’s driving all this media coverage? To examine this further, our ExpertFile team weighs in below with the first five major rules of Expert Marketing for Schools and summarizes some insider tips they shared from their experience. Tune in next week for the finale! Rule #1: Organize a Team to Help Focus on Expert Marketing As with most initiatives, it’s vitally important to get the support of senior people in the organization when developing an increased focus on faculty experts. Gaining the support of a group of progressive deans within the school as well as notable faculty can be critical. Appoint a specialized team that can help you establish media visibility as a priority for your school. Build your case for an expert marketing program and ask for their support in developing your plan, then set up some regular meetings and make this team visible on the campus. It will help you develop a sense of collaboration and continuity. Insiders Tip: Duke built a “rapid response team” within their media relations department that had a clearly defined meeting schedule. They met twice a week and kept meetings to just 30 minutes in length. These regular check-ins helped identify breaking news opportunities and inspired a sense of priority and established momentum. Rule #2: Strategize with your Experts It’s amazing how many colleges and universities’ media relations departments we talk with that are disconnected from the interesting research conducted by their faculty. Ironically, it’s this research, as well the academic interests and passions of your faculty that feed the most engaging stories you can tell to the media. Make sure you have a good understanding of current and upcoming research that you can pitch. You should also identify what publications and books are being planned by faculty and see how you can collaborate with them. Insiders Tip: Duke invested the time to meet personally with faculty members to get a deeper understanding of their research and identify relevant topics that could be pitched to the media. They also invited some faculty to media meetings to brainstorm on potential news stories. It’s this kind of contact that helped make faculty more responsive to media opportunities and respond to deadlines. Rule #3: “Opt-In” your Experts for Different Types of Contributions It’s becoming more understood by faculty that media coverage can be a very good thing for their career and their organization. However, be careful of one size fits all approaches in recruiting faculty to contribute their expertise. Contribution from faculty comes in different forms. Faculty can be engaged in a broad spectrum of activities that run from broadcast TV interviews, blogging, and even helping speak at recruiting or alumni events. It’s good practice to create a master checklist of possible engagement types and to take an inventory of what your faculty experts may want to opt-in for. Having this inventory allows you to better plan for content development projects and also ensures that faculty clearly understand the duties that are expected of them in a media relations capacity. Insiders Tip: Duke’s media team recruited their experts for a range of contributions based on the level of interest and comfort level of faculty. And they made it clear that agreeing to be a media source meant responding promptly to incoming media inquiries. Rule #4: Provide Media Training and Support While every campus has it’s faculty “rockstars”, who can rise to the challenge of any breaking news opportunity, many experts on the campus can benefit from some form of media training. It’s critical to your media strategy’s success that you provide the experts with support and opportunities to practice their speaking skills in front of a camera. If you expect more experts to step up to the podium, it’s important to make the investment. However, make sure you design these programs to be engaging and don’t overwhelm your faculty by making them too exhaustive. Often they can be coordinated over lunch or in the early morning before classes start and can be focused on key areas such as: public speaking, blogging tips, video training, and social networking guidelines. Get a sense of where your key gaps are among faculty before you dive in. Also remember these sessions can provide valuable opportunities to shoot video interviews, B-Roll clips and even headshots that can be used to provide media assets for your website, alumni magazine and other properties. Insiders Tip: Duke invests in media training for its faculty experts and administrators offering a two and a half hour media training workshop each year to participating faculty, covering interview techniques via phone, video and social media. Rule #5: Meet Journalists on Their Terms Reporters appreciate media relations contacts that help them get their job done. Operating under tighter breaking news cycles they have less time to discover and research experts. In todays competitive media market what sells papers or builds ratings is often what gets covered. You have to focus your experts on helping journalists tell stories that matter to all those “eyeballs”. The best media relations professionals understand the value in building relationships with journalists. These connections are often essential in establishing your organization as a relevant, trusted source of expert commentary. Given the importance of these relationships, we’re also seeing the renewed popularity of industry conferences hosted by organizations such as the MAKI Network (www.thembasite.com) and Wynne Events – BAM Conference (www.wynneevents.com). These events give schools a unique opportunity to listen to and meet journalists from major news networks. ExpertFile sponsored both MAKI and Wynne events this past year, and we were impressed by the roster of global media attending. Insiders Tip: While Duke still distributes the requisite daily news on campus events and other university happenings, they don’t get mired in all of this content. They also focus a great deal of their activities on expert content that positions their university as a go-to source that is both credible and relevant to a variety of media audiences. READ PART II of How Duke University doubled its media hits by showcasing faculty experts.

Locking down your data. Are lawmakers finally waking up to the importance of privacy?

Data collection and data control are becoming international issues. As the lucrative and important pieces of customer data collection become a priority for major tech and software companies – privacy and protection is now emerging as the key issue for international legislators. Just recently, Microsoft had to update several of its agreements with cloud customers and re-classify its role in Europe. Last month, as part of an enquiry that opened earlier this year, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) expressed 'serious concerns' over whether the relevant contractual terms were compliant with GDPR, and over Microsoft's role as a data processor or data controller for EU institutions. The report followed the publication of a series of papers by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, suggesting that Office 365 was breaching GDPR by collecting 'functional and diagnostics data', including email subject lines and text run through a spell-checker. Microsoft has now acknowledged its position as a data controller - which has a higher bar for ensuring user data - when it comes to the provision of enterprise services. "In the [Online Services Terms] OST update, we will clarify that Microsoft assumes the role of data controller when we process data for specified administrative and operational purposes incident to providing the cloud services covered by this contractual framework, such as Azure, Office 365, Dynamics and Intune," says Julie Brill, Microsoft's corporate vice president for global privacy and regulatory affairs and chief privacy officer. "This subset of data processing serves administrative or operational purposes such as account management; financial reporting; combating cyber attacks on any Microsoft product or service; and complying with our legal obligations."  Forbes Magazine – November 18 Data collection and control are becoming big issues on a global scale as more and more governments are looking for consumer protection while companies are seeking the profit that comes from the information customers provide voluntarily and sometimes unwillingly . Are you a reporter covering technology, privacy and data collection and control?  Did you know that there is value in the results of spell-checkers and document review tools? If you have questions or need an expert source for insight and perspective – let us help. Dr. Rachel Cummings is an expert in data privacy, algorithmic economics, optimization, statistics, and information theory. Dr. Cummings is available to speak with media regarding data privacy and other topics, simply click on her icon to arrange an interview.

Why are the wolves of Wall Street so worried about Elizabeth Warren?

Elizabeth Warren started her campaign for the presidency far from being the front-runner. She trailed the likes of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders dramatically, often in third place or worse and usually in single digits.   But her resolve stood, she provided plans and policy planks. And … she found a target and took aim at the wealthy. All of her ideas that include costly policies about health care and education come with billion- and even trillion-dollar price tags. Usually these concepts are laughed off the debate stage – but Warren carefully and strategically costed them out. And those covering the costs of her ideas are the banks along with the rich and wealthy. Her ideas caught fire with supporters and now Warren is seen as a legitimate contender for the White House. It has some nervous and many taking notice. It’s a role that Ms. Warren unabashedly embraces, as an increasing number of voters, as well as a few veterans of the finance industry, see her as the policymaker who can address the growing wealth gap in the United States and take on the corruption and excess in the business world. Ms. Warren has made battling corporate greed and corruption a central theme of her fiercely populist campaign, mixing anti-elitist oratory with policy plans calling for sweeping new regulations. On Friday morning she released an ambitious proposal to pay for her “Medicare for all” program, with provisions directly affecting Wall Street: aggressive new taxes on billionaires, an additional tax on financial transactions like stock trades and annual investment gains taxes for the wealthiest households. Just hours later she told an audience in Iowa: “Our democracy has been hijacked by the rich and the powerful.” Interviews with more than two dozen hedge-fund managers, private-equity and bank officials, analysts and lobbyists made clear that Ms. Warren has stirred more alarm than any other Democratic candidate. (Senator Bernie Sanders, who describes himself as a socialist, is also feared, but is considered less likely to capture the nomination.)  November 04 – New York Times   Are you a journalist covering the race for the Whitehouse? Then let our experts help. Dr. Stephen Farnsworth is professor of political science and international affairs at the University of Mary Washington. A published author and a media ‘go-to’ on U.S. politics, he is available to speak with media regarding this topic. Simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.

Corporate board diversity: Tokenism, or true change?

As corporations face pressure to increase gender diversity on their boards, there are those that simply add a single female director to appease critics, and those that make genuine and successful efforts to diversify. Mark Mallon, assistant professor of strategic management, is part of a research team that has explored factors that can differentiate between what is a token effort, and one that adds more female directors to a corporate board. Research recently published by the team found that U.S. firms with more top female managers and with a female director serving on the nominating committee are more likely to see additional female board appointments. The article titled “Beyond tokenism: How strategic leaders influence more meaningful gender diversity on boards of directors” appeared in Strategic Management Journal. “We also found that boards and nominating committees with younger members amplify these effects, and result in boards that have greater female representation,” Mallon said. “These of course aren’t the only factors that can contribute to greater gender diversity on corporate boards, but they are important ones.” Professor Mallon is available to talk with you about this research, which hopefully can add to your coverage of the efforts by corporations to change the composition of their boards to better reflect the broader population. If Professor Mallon can assist with your reporting about corporate governance, please reach out to Owen Covington, director of the Elon University News Bureau, at ocovington@elon.edu or (336) 278-7413. Professor Mallon is available for phone, email and broadcast interviews. 

Full speed ahead or time to pump the breaks when it comes to investing in ride-share companies?

There’s been a lot of talk and even some screaming from early investors about the state of ride-share stocks like Uber and Lyft. Since its IPO, Uber has been a rollercoaster ride for those who got in early. “When Uber stock (UBER) went public on May 10, it looked like a disaster. At minimum, underwriters look for a stock to close slightly above its offering price. Uber’s shares dropped 7.6% to $41.60 in the first day of trading and closed well below the offering price of $45. But a funny thing has happened since. After closing down as much as 18% from its IPO price, Uber stock has rallied 21% to close at $44.92 per share on Thursday. The stock eclipsed the IPO price during intraday trading for the first time on Wednesday and closed at exactly $45 that day.” June 07 – Barron’s But let’s be honest, unless you’ve got a crystal ball or a time machine – any stock is a gamble. How the market reacts, how the company performs and even how CEOs behave can dictate big gains or drastic falls. Steve Jones is a Professor of Finance at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business – he lent his perspective to the topic. “As far as which stocks to buy, there are never right or wrong answers – It’s just a question of a person being able to assess risk or potential returns. The IPO prices indicate the market has discounted Uber and Lyft stocks and sees them as riskier than originally perceived to be. Now, they do offer potential for a good return… For example, Facebook stocks dropped then rebounded… Google dropped then rebounded. Lots of stocks that have not done well at first have come back. Will that be these two? "I think there’s potential for it. On the other hand, we have this situation where analysts are critical of the business models of both these companies. It’s not clear Uber drivers are going to sign up to do this in the long run at these kind of wages, and if they can’t underpay drivers, how do they make money? There is a criticism going on of the business model here, and if this model can become profitable, I think the stocks will take off. It’s questionable though, whether that’s possible or not. That’s what the market is going back and forth on right now.” Are you covering the track Uber investors are on, other IPO’s or companies that are disrupting not just the marketplace but also the stock market?  Then let our experts help with your stories. Steve L. Jones is an expert in the areas of asset valuation, corporate finance, financial markets, and investment management. He’s available to speak with media regarding these topics – simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.

Big trouble for big pharma – let our expert explain

Things are sunny and bright for the usually family-friendly image of Johnson & Johnson. In fact, as more and more evidence and details are presented in a landmark lawsuit between the corporate giant and the State of Oklahoma.  The company could be facing financial calamity and its reputation might be a near impossible mission for any PR expert to recover. “As the state of Oklahoma’s multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson has unfolded over the past month, the company has struggled to explain marketing strategies its accusers say dangerously misrepresented the risk of opioid addiction to doctors, manipulated medical research, and helped drive an epidemic that has claimed 400,000 lives over the past two decades. Johnson & Johnson profited further as demand for opioids surged by buying poppy growing companies in Australia to supply the raw narcotic for its own medicines and other American drug makers. One expert witness at the forefront of combatting the epidemic, Dr Andrew Kolodny, told the court he had little idea about Johnson & Johnson’s role until he saw the evidence in the case. “I think it’s fair to characterize Johnson & Johnson as a kingpin in our opioid crisis,” he said. – The Guardian, June 19 But what is next? Will this lawsuit be duplicated in other states? Are other big-pharma companies liable or in similar trouble? And is this the gamechanger the industry needs? There are a lot of questions and that’s where we can help. Dr. Marc Sweeney is the Founding Dean of the School of Pharmacy at Cedarville University and is an expert in the fields of drug abuse, prescription drug abuse and Opioid addiction. Marc is available to speak with media regarding this growing issue. Simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.