Who are those guys?

Editor’s note: Save your rapier wit; we know Ellen is female…delightfully so. Go rent Butch Cassidy… and get a life.

Jon Austin

My first job that didn’t require sunscreen was in politics. I loved the experience so much that I spent most of the next decade working in the field, mostly for Tom Eagleton, but also on a fair number of political campaigns. When Eagleton retired in 1987, I went to work for another politician and within days hated it. I eventually realized that what I had liked about politics was working with Eagleton and the amazing group of people he gathered around him. I quit my job and spent a summer playing with computers just enough to get hired by a software company as project manager. I worked in software for a couple years, had a great time with great people, and then jumped into the airline business, spending 10 years as the head communications guy for Northwest Airlines. I went from there to a big PR firm, Fleishman Hillard and after five years there, decided to try this on my own. I’m as surprised as anyone to find myself here.

Bruce Benidt

Most of what I’ve done for work or play involves reading and writing, thinking and talking — stuff you can do sitting down. Now, as an executive communications coach, I get paid to help people think and speak more clearly, concisely and from the heart. I also teach journalism in college and write, most recently a Civil War novel (crossovertheriver.com). I honed my skepticism as a daily newspaper reporter for 10 years (Minneapolis Star Tribune most recently), then spent a dozen years with Shandwick, a global PR firm, where I was given the cool title of chief learning officer. I have degrees from a tiny school and a huge one – New College in Florida and the University of Minnesota – but most of my education comes from traveling, reading, and talking with friends over rum. I’m a desperate pessimist who wants government, business and society to work for everyone, and I feel that writing is a holy, fragile and powerful force.

Tony Carideo

For years I haven’t been able to hold a job or get along well with other people. So I started my own consulting business in 2003, The Carideo Group, Inc. I help public and private companies communicate – with Wall Street analysts and portfolio managers and regular Joe investors. I write their annual reports, press releases, conference call scripts, etc. I also do some occasional media relations, helping get their stories in trade and mainstream publications. Before this, I was at Padilla Speer Beardsley, where I helped head up their investor relations practice, and before that I was on the corporate side, as an assistant treasurer and investor relations guy at two software companies. I was also a securities analyst and director of a research department for five years (see what I said about holding a job?) and was on the “buy-side” at Boatmen’s Trust in St. Louis. I spent the bulk of my career as a journalist – 21 years spread over the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Milwaukee Journal. Still have ink in my blood, which is old and tired.

Mike Keliher

I play guitar and love semicolons. I read Rolling Stone to argue with the “National Affairs” section and watch Bill O’Reilly to remind myself how not to argue. I’m roughly 1/6 the age of my colleagues here and roughly 1/6 as smart. But I write well and they fell for it.

As a student, I served on the national leadership committee of the Public Relations Student Society of America. I was the editor of the association’s newspaper while also serving as the opinion section editor for the University of St. Thomas’ Aquin newspaper. For the past four years, I’ve worked at a small, smart and interesting public relations firm called Provident Partners. Before that, I grew up in and managed a hardware store, built Web sites, worked in tech support, and played a lot of baseball. I still do all of these things with varying levels of professionalism.

I wear shoes as little as possible.

I also write at Unjournalism, blurt things out via Twitter and can be reached here via e-mail.

Ellen Mrja
Ellen Mrja is the senior member of the mass communication department at Minnesota State University, Mankato. A former chair of the department who relinquished that power, she says she has mostly loved her humble mission during the past 27 years of hoeing rows and rows of fresh, young potatoes. Her areas of expertise include First Amendment law, magazine and opinion writing, journalism history and public relations. She is advisor to the MSU chapter of SPJ, and is currently working to launch a professional chapter in southern Minnesota of SPJ. A frequent speaker to non-profit and corporate groups, in 2005 she presented a research lecture on section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act at Oxford University, Oxford, England. Her finest achievement, however, was in recommending Bruce Benidt be hired as a fulltime faculty member once-upon-a-time at Minnesota State University.

Michael Tankenoff

Michael graduated from the University of Arizona in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and spent his first year out of school in Los Angeles working in film and television production. Beginning as a Production Assistant on a full-length feature film for the newly established 1744 Entertainment, he worked through pre and post production phases including being the producer of the films “behind the scenes” features. Michael also co-produced and co-wrote sports features for the newly developed television network Current TV. Since returning to the Twin Cities, Michael has completed an internship with Fleishman-Hillard where he worked with a variety of firms and organizations including Fair Isaac, GFI Software, St. Jude Medical and he Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission (MSFC).

Michael is currently a University of Minnesota Graduate student pursuing a Masters in Strategic Communication as well as being a member of the J Austin & Associates team as an intern and the editorial assistant for the Same Rowdy Crowd principal members.