Jim Lindheim

Jim Lindheim, former Chairman of Burson-Marsteller, one of the world’s largest public relations firms, was on the firing line of corporate crises for nearly thirty years. He dealt with product recalls, environmental controversies, product safety issues, consumer boycotts, class action lawsuits, and many other corporate challenges. Among his scores of clients were corporations like Coca-Cola, Merrill Lynch, Johnson & Johnson, Altria, DuPont, Tetra Pak and Shell Oil as well as industry associations for airlines, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, packaging and nuclear power. When Coca-Cola had its disastrous introduction of New Coke, he was there to help fix the situation. Also when Perrier recalled its bottled water. He helped Philip Morris fight the “tobacco wars” and then helped them reorient their strategies and change their business practices. As the head of Burson-Marsteller’s Public Affairs practice, Lindheim codified Best Practices in Crisis Communications and in Crisis Preparedness and was a widely respected lecturer and writer on those topics. A winner of several public relations industry awards, he was a consultant to the staffs of both the White House and Prince Charles. And, when corporations started to work on Corporate Social Responsibility, Lindheim became a leading expert for companies such as Kraft, Miller Beer, Diageo and others. Since retiring in 2007, Jim has been active on non-profit boards and served a term as Town Council Member in Castle Valley, Utah. He has been writing short stories and 10-minute plays. The latter have been performed in Utah, Colorado, Washington State, California and Kansas. SPIN is his first published novel.