Corporate Communications · Crisis Management · Public Relations
Most of what your company is worthisn’t on the balance sheet.
Fifteen years protecting enterprise reputation in regulated, PE-backed and publicly traded environments — including the largest healthcare data breach in U.S. history.
What I do
I build the communications function that protects the 92% of enterprise value that isn’t on the balance sheet.
That means the corporate narrative in ordinary times and in the first hour of the hard times: executive positioning, media relations, regulatory and issues management, M&A and transaction communications, and the governance to make it repeatable rather than heroic.
I’ve done it inside a Fortune 50 health insurer, a publicly traded REIT through a landmark acquisition, a global marketplace through a full rebrand, and a PE-backed telecom building a function from zero.
Former broadcast journalist. Bilingual, English and Spanish.
Gene Rodriguez Miller
Carmel, Indiana
Selected work
Crisis at national scale
Led communications for the settlement following Anthem’s 2015 cyberattack — 80 million individuals, the largest healthcare data breach in U.S. history — and served on the core crisis team throughout. Coordinated messaging across legal, government affairs, cybersecurity and operations under sustained national scrutiny.
A function built from zero
Built and led the enterprise PR function at Brightspeed from inception: corporate narrative, regulatory positioning and community impact messaging across a multi-billion-dollar fiber expansion in 20 states, with a COE governance model that scaled across markets and business lines.
Visibility that moved numbers
At Duke Realty, increased executive media engagement 190% and press release output 106% in the first year, securing coverage in CNBC, NBC Nightly News, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times — through a transformation that ended in the company’s acquisition by Prologis.
A rebrand that landed
Spearheaded public relations in the repositioning of KAR Auction Services to KAR Global across 20+ brands, recasting the company as a technology-enabled digital marketplace. PRSA Pinnacle Award recipient.
Selected work
Three companies. Three different kinds of pressure.
Building a PR function from nothing in telecommunications. Steering a public REIT through an acquisition. Coordinating national crisis communications in healthcare. This is what that work actually looked like.
Fractional advisory
Senior communications leadership, without the headcount.
Most high-growth and PE-backed companies need a communications leader long before they can justify hiring one. The gap usually surfaces at the worst possible moment.
Crisis readiness and response
Plan, stakeholder map, pre-approved language, named decision-makers — built before you need it, and on call when you do.
Executive positioning and media training
Turning founders and executives into credible, prepared, visible voices ahead of the moment that forces the audition.
Transaction and change communications
M&A, restructuring, leadership transitions, regulatory scrutiny — the moments where the wrong sequence costs more than the wrong words.
Communications function design
For teams building the capability in-house: operating model, governance, KPIs, and the hiring plan to make it stick.
Why this work matters
Reputation is a financial position. Most companies staff it like a hobby.
Intangible value is the whole category. Reputation is the part of it that moves fastest, and the part nobody is assigned to protect.
Attributable to reputation alone — $13.8 trillion.
UK Reputation Valuation Report, 2025Average time for a share price to recover from a major reputational crisis. Roughly one in three companies never do.
SenateSHJShare of executives who believe their communications function is ready for the environment they operate in.
Weber ShandwickEvery organization pays for crisis communications. The only question is when.
Weekly roundup
Reputation Radar
Five stories a week on public relations, corporate and crisis communications. What happened, and what it means for the people who have to answer for it. New every Friday.
Read the latest issue →Writing
The Exposure Gap
92% of S&P 500 market value is now intangible. Only 49% of companies have a written plan to protect it. Eight numbers on why communications belongs in the business conversation, not next to it.
PR Problem or Reputation Crisis? How to Tell the Difference in Under Five Minutes
Most executives can’t tell a PR problem from a reputation crisis, and that confusion costs more than the original problem ever would. Here’s the test I use, and the three questions worth asking before you respond to anything publicly.
Your reputation now lives inside the chatbot
I asked Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude what they knew about my former employer — then asked each one where it got that information. Not one cited a press release.
You can’t buy your reputation. You have to earn it.
Contact
Available for retained advisory
and select interim engagements
Former Board Director · Horizon House · Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana · Habitat for Humanity of Greater Indianapolis