Rissig Licha
Executive Vice President, Managing Director of Latin America, and Senior Partner
Fleishman-Hillard Miami/Latin America
Rissig Licha has more than two decades of experience as a communications counselor in both the public and private sectors, especially in the areas of strategic corporate counseling, corporate cultural transformation and re-engineering, public affairs, financial relations, public policy counseling and government relations, and issues and crisis management.
In his capacity as executive vice president and general manager of the Miami office, Mr. Licha directs the servicing of accounts in Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America. A seasoned bilingual, bicultural professional, he has earned a reputation as a leading authority on public relations in the emerging markets of Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market. In 2003 Mr. Licha became managing director of FH Hispania, Fleishman-Hillard’s United States Hispanic market initiative, a network of more than 25 bilingual, bicultural counselors that provides servicing, amongst others, to H&R Block, UPS, Pfizer, Big Lots, and Hormel.
Within the Latin American region he has led the communications teams for such textbook projects as the Bayer aspirin/Reye’s syndrome crisis; the introduction of American Airlines in 20 markets; the DuPont Hotel fire in Puerto Rico; the court-mandated, 28-country notification of settlement of the Dalkon Shield class action suit; and the cultural transformation and corporate positioning of Argentina’s largest multimedia group, Grupo Clarín, for which he was awarded a Silver Anvil award in 1997.
Other clients Mr. Licha has worked for throughout the hemisphere include Coca-Cola, Bacardi Imports, Colgate-Palmolive, Merck, Steel Hector & Davis, Johnson & Johnson, Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association, Philip Morris, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Alamo Rent-A-Car, Imperial Chemical Industries, DuPont, Rohm & Haas, AT&T, ITT, Shearson Lehman, First Boston Corporation, Merrill Lynch, Levitt Homes, American Express, MasterCard, Enron, Texaco, Gulf, Southern Electric, Wal-Mart, Anheuser-Busch, and the governments of Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
Before joining Fleishman-Hillard, Mr. Licha was executive vice president and regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean with Burson-Marsteller. He joined Burson-Marsteller in 1979 when he opened the San Juan office and in 1988 established that agency's regional servicing center in Miami.
Previously, Mr. Licha served as director of communications for the government of Puerto Rico. He oversaw all external image efforts, including the promotional campaigns for Puerto Rico tourism, economic development, and rums programs. He was also an award-winning journalist for El Nuevo Día, the leading newspaper of Puerto Rico.
Mr. Licha has a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and advertising from the University of Tulsa. He is fluent in Spanish and English and has a working knowledge of Portuguese.
