About Us

This section of a “book website” is the place for listing authors’ credentials … BUT -- as proud of our background and accomplishments as we are -- we want to emphasize that the Manager’s Communication Toolbox reflects more than just what we’ve learned in our combined 70 years of professional communications experience.

Throughout our careers – working as reporters, speechwriters, book researchers, editors, public affairs specialists and agency spokespersons – we worked for and with many effective leaders. Members of the president’s cabinet, CEOs of national corporations, U.S. senators, agency administrators, and managers of firms large and small – we learned from them all.  THEN, in writing this book, we went back and interviewed many of them, synthesizing their advice and providing examples from what these successful leaders and experts believed to be “best practices” in communication.

Everett A. (Ev) Chasen

Everett A. (Ev) Chasen is a partner in Foxwood Communications LLC, a communication consulting firm offering writing, mentoring, and communications planning services to companies and government agencies in the Washington, D.C. area.  Ev is a former member of the Federal Senior Executive Service and was Chief Communications Officer for the Veterans Health Administration, the nation’s largest healthcare organization.

During his 35 year career with the U.S. government, Ev was a speechwriter for two cabinet secretaries, the senior news media spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and held a number of other significant public affairs and administrative positions with VA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  He has also been a freelance writer, a communications trainer, and an editor and writer for a number of publications.

Robert R. (Bob) Putnam

Robert R. (Bob) Putnam began his communication career as an award winning newspaper reporter, moving on to federal and corporate public relations.  He has provided public relations counsel to, and written speeches for, the CEOs and other top officials at several well-known national health care associations, as well as for a Congressional Commission and a U.S. Senator. During different administrations spanning 20 years, Bob was senior speechwriter for the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - serving members of the president's cabinet from both political parties.

Today, Bob operates Putnam Communication, a “boutique” communications firm in Annapolis, MD, specializing in speechwriting and speaker coaching (see www.putcom.com).