Golin, Al

Al Golin, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Golin/Harris International, is a man of enthusiasm, humility, and genuine commitment to long-term relationships with clients. He is a pioneer who says he has enjoyed every minute of his almost 50-year career in public relations.

Golin was born June 19, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a bachelor's degree in business, with a minor in journalism, from Chicago's Roosevelt University. He began his career in 1951 as a Midwest field press representative for MGM Pictures. At the young age of 21, his clients included Debbie Reynolds, Clark Gable, and Gene Kelly.

In 1956, Golin joined a small public relations firm in Chicago, Max Cooper & Associates, which—as was true for almost all firms at the time—dealt primarily in publicity. A year later, in 1957, Golin made a career-changing telephone call. After reading a newspaper article about Ray Kroc and his then-fledgling McDonald's hamburger chain, Golin placed a cold call to Kroc, who invited Golin to come over to meet with him. According to Golin, “We talked for about 20 minutes, and he said, ‘Okay, start Monday, and your retainer will be $500 a month’” (personal communication, October 24,2002). More than 45 years later, Golin/Harris still is working for McDonald's, but Golin admits, “The monthly retainer is a bit more than $500!” (“Timeline,” 2004, n.p.).

In 1958, Golin was named a partner of Max Cooper & Associates. Seven years later the firm became Cooper & Golin. In 1975, Cooper left the firm to become a full-time McDonald's franchisee and to pursue his hobby of producing Broadway musicals, and the firm was renamed Golin Communications. In 1981, the firm was renamed Golin/Harris Communications to reflect the signifi-cant contributions of Tom Harris, who later retired to teach at Northwestern University. In 1999, Golin/Harris Communications was acquired by the Interpublic Group of Companies and renamed Golin/Harris International.

In addition to McDonald's, other clients of the firm include Bayer Aspirin, DaimlerChrysler Corporation, The Walt Disney Co., Florida Depart-ment of Citrus, Kellogg's, Keebler Foods, Levi Strauss & Co., Lowe's Companies, Nintendo of America, Pharmacia Corp., Ralston Purina, Sprint, Texas Instruments, Toyota Motor Sales of America, and VISA USA.

Golin prides himself on the firm's reputation as a full-service agency devoted to maintaining long-term relationships with clients. He stated, “We never tried to have a laundry list of clients. We are not just project oriented” (personal communication, October 24, 2002). According to Golin, the key to maintaining meaningful partnerships with clients involves a combination of environmental scanning and what he described as “changing things before they need changing” (personal communication, October 24, 2002). He continued,

Golin/Harris International is among the top-10 largest public relations firms in the country, with nearly 1,000 employees and revenues of $140 million. The firm has offices in London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan, with exclusive affiliates in dozens of other cities and countries. In 1996, Golin/Harris was selected as the Agency of the Year by the trade publication, Inside PR.

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