Mike Schwager is President of Worldlink Media Consultants, Inc., (www.mediamavens.com) based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Regarded as one of this country’s leading media relations professionals, Mike has garnered accolades from the CEOs of companies, non-profit and humanitarian organizations, and authors for his achievements in building their reputations via media coverage, media interview and crisis training and creative/strategic consulting and positioning.

Schwager began his communications career at CBS as a writer for Audience Services, where he responded to viewers’ letters about CBS programming, and the company’s policies and stance on issues. It was in reading a letter from Michael Klepper, head of the broadcast media department at Burson-Marsteller, to Hughes Rudd, then anchor of the CBS Morning News, that Schwager’s career track changed.

“I was incredibly impressed with Klepper’s letter,” said Schwager. “It was a pitch letter, a letter intended to convince Mr. Rudd about the newsworthiness of one of Mr. Klepper’s clients, but it was so disarming in its persuasiveness, and a letter written with such style, creativity and panache, that it moved me to write to Mike Klepper and ask for a job.”

Klepper called Schwager at his job at CBS, and asked him to come in. That interview, and a subsequent interview with Burson-Marsteller’s Vice Chairman, Buck Buchwald, landed Schwager a job as Broadcast Media Specialist at B-M, one of the world’s largest public relations agencies. And his new boss? Mike Klepper.

“I remember enjoying this new job immensely,” said Schwager. It was really a job as a publicist, communicating clients’ stories to producers of national and local television shows – and it combined my writing skills with the need to pitch stories verbally over the phone.” Schwager said that the phone, in these pre-Internet days, was the primary way one made contact with the media. “Prior to e-mail,” he said, “journalists were more receptive to speaking to publicists than they are now, though phone contact remains a favorite point-of-access to the media for me to this day.”

After a period of time, Klepper decided to launch his own agency, and asked Mike to join him as his president. “It was an accelerated move on the career path for me,” said Schwager. “Now I was going to manage a staff, manage accounts and continue to approach the media on clients’ stories.” At Michael Klepper Associates, Schwager directed award-winning public relations activities for The Exhibition of the People’s Republic of China (China’s first trade and cultural exhibition in the USA), and the One Year Countdown to the Louisiana World’s Fair, arranging for extensive live-remote coverage by NBC’s The Today Show. He also managed accounts for Polaroid, Data General, the Canadian government, Viacom and Father Flanagan’s BoysTown.

After six years at MKA, “a period I will always feel grateful to Mike Klepper for,” said Schwager, he initially launched an agency with former New York Times reporter Steve Conn – Schwager-Conn Communications. The two amicably parted ways after a year, at which point Schwager launched The Media Relations Group, which he ran for ten years, from 1985 to 1995. MRG’s client list included: Kelloggs; Magazine Publishers of America; ABC/Capital Cities Publishing; World Vision, the international relief and development agency; United Negro College Fund; IBM; Tadiran, the Israeli electronics communications company; the United States-Mexican Development Corporation; and authors like Harvey Mackay (he made Mr. Mackay’s book, Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, a mega-bestseller); Wilson Harrell, former publisher of Inc. Magazine (For Entrepreneurs Only); Richard Goodwin, former Special Assistant to John F. Kennedy (Remembering America: A Voice From The Sixties); superagent Bob Woolf (Friendly Persuasion); Louise Hay (You Can Heal Your Life); and real estate tycoon Sam Grossman (Win The Food Fight).

After leaving New York City for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Schwager launched a practice known as Worldlink Media Consultants Inc.

As a solo consultant and practitioner, he decided to channel part of his idealism by helping non-profit and humanitarian organizations become better known and respected,

Here are several he has helped:

Mike put Opportunity International, a Christian NGO, on the media map for the first time in its 30 year history. Dedicated to providing microloans - small business loans - to impoverished working men and women, Opportunity’s mission is to lift the working poor and their families out of chronic poverty into self-sufficiency and self-empowerment. Over a four year period, Mike delivered major media coverage for Opportunity’s two CEOs, specializing in the ghost-writing and placement of dozens of Opinion Editorials (Op-Eds) in major newspapers and magazines. This kind of coverage translated into significant donor support for the NGO.

Said CEO Chris Crane: “Mike Schwager is a superb writer, publicist, gifted strategist and highly creative idea man. Beyond that, he gives heart and passion to everything he touches. Thanks, Mike, for putting us on the media map, and for four exceptional years of performance on behalf of our organization.”

Mike’s work on behalf of CURE International, a humanitarian organization that builds and runs teaching hospitals for disabled children in Third World countries, resulted in major media coverage on tv networks like CNN, Fox News Channel, CBS News, NBC Nightly News; many nationally syndicated radio shows; in print stories with USA Today, Associated Press, Reuters, NY Times, Washington Times, Forbes Small Business, and Worth Magazine; and in numerous Op-Eds in major newspapers across the country.

Said CURE EVP, Craig Hammon: “Mike - You have done a superb job with us and we are grateful. CURE has so much more visibility and exposure–and credibility–because of your efforts. You really “get it” in terms of our mission and vision, and communicate that so broadly and so well. Best wishes in your very important and good work.”

In generating coverage for Geneva Global, a philanthropic advisory and grantmaking service for wealthy donors who fund successful grassroots humanitarian charitable projects in the developing world, Mike again put an organization on the media map for the first time, generating substantial donor support in the process. The roster of media placements for Geneva is long, and includes: multiple placements in The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Forbes.com, The Financial Times, The Economist, Harvard International Review, Institutional Investor; multiple appearances on CNN, CNN International, Fox News Channel, Plum Television, PBS’s Wall Street Week with Fortune, CNBC’s High Net Worth and numerous Op-Eds in major newspapers.

These placements generated significant donor support for Geneva Global. In just one placement - arranging a profile for Geneva’s CEO in Forbes Magazine - a reader of that article donated millions of dollars to charitable projects managed by Geneva.

Said CEO Eric Thurman: “Thank you for the dedication you bring to telling our message. Together, we are changing a lot of lives.”

In representing the non-profit KidsPeace: The National Center for Youth Overcoming Crisis, Mike has been the chief media interview trainer for the leadership team of KidsPeace for the past ten years, as well as providing publicity support and creative advice.

Said Vice President of Communications Mark Stubis: “Mike Schwager is in a class by himself, a true media wizard who mixes his insider’s knowledge of the news business with brilliant inspiration in a sort of alchemy that time after time turns ideas and passions into gold. Driven by an inner fire to change the world for the better…he consistently surpasses your highest expectations with inspired strategies and relentless energy that produce unhoped-for results. Simply put, Mike Schwager makes media magic.”

After the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Mike Schwager was told by a philanthropist/entrepreneur that he wanted to give half a million dollars to the Clinton-Bush Katrina Relief Fund. Mike counseled giving to a different charity, because he felt that while the Clinton-Bush Fund was doing good work, the contribution would be “lost in the shuffle” of thousands of other contributions. Instead, Mike’s advice was to focus on some “unsung hero” - a charity that had a very specific niche - that was involved with Katrina relief - and a group that needed the money and yet had fallen under the radar screen.

Mike’s research led him to The National Spinal Cord Injury Association, which was in the process of identifying and helping people with severe disabilities who survived Hurricane Katrina. The gift turned out to be the NSCIA’s largest gift in its 57 year history. Moreover, the creation of the fund has become a magnet for an influx of gifts from additional donors, allowing the fund to grow.

Said Marcie Roth, CEO of the NSPCIA: “Due to your wonderful efforts and his incredible generosity, many hurricane survivors with disabilities will be receiving desperately needed help in the form of housing assistance and home repairs, wheelchairs and other medical equipment replacement, and household goods and vehicle replacement. We will also be able to expand an aggressive advocacy campaign to improve emergency and disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts for people with disabilities who are at greatest risk, and likely to be overlooked in future catastrophic events. THANK YOU!!! Your persistence and attention to detail have forged a partnership that will have a lasting effect on the lives of many, many people.”

When the Boys & Girls Clubs of America asked for Mike’s help in generating awareness for National KidsDay, Mike approached tv icon Art Linkletter, and Brian Cranston, star of tv’s Malcolm in the Middle, to participate. Both delivered tv appearances for the event.

Said B&GCA’s VP Scott Hallenback: “The National KidsDay program had its most successful public relations results to-date and that was contributable to Michael’s tenacious, but strategic pursuit of media opportunities.”

Mike has also represented The John Templeton Foundation; H.E.L.P. founded by Mario and Andrew Cuomo; The Christian Herald Association/Bowery Mission of New York; Corporate Financial Services; and books on behalf of Rodale Press, including The Hidden Pope by Darcy O’Brien. Mr. Schwager arranged front-page New York Times coverage for this book.

Currently, Schwager is working on a book by McGraw-Hill Business entitled, A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty by Phil Smith and Eric Thurman. Forward written by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus; and endorsed by legendary investor Sir John Templeton.

For six years, Mike Schwager was host of his own public affairs radio program in New York City called Mike Talk on WOR Radio. He was also the first American public relations executive to appear on Glasnost, Russian television, with his own marketing communications program during the Gorbachev era.

Mike Schwager is published in The Wall Street Journal, PR Aids, Training Magazine, Chemical Engineering Magazine, PR News, PR Week, and PR Crossing. He is the subject of a chapter on public relations in Wilson Harrell’s book, For Entrepreneurs Only. Mr. Harrell was the publisher of Inc. Magazine. Mr. Harrell also wrote about Mr. Schwager in his column for Success Magazine.

Mike Schwager’s favorite quotes are: “See the greatness in every human being you meet” and “Never give up!”