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Home > About Us
Gwendolyn S. King, President and Founder
 Gwendolyn King is President of Podium Prose, a speakers bureau and speechwriting service, in Washington, D.C.
Prior to her launch of the company, Mrs. King was Senior Vice President of Corporate and Public Affairs for PECO Energy Company (formerly Philadelphia
Electric Company) from 1992 until her retirement in February 1998. From 1989 to 1992, she served as the 11th Commissioner of the Social Security
Administration under President George H. W. Bush.
Mrs. King was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as Deputy Assistant and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House from 1986 to 1988.
While there, she was appointed to the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, the Interagency Committee on Women's Business Enterprise, and
later, the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Commission on the Social Security
Notch Issue, and by President George W. Bush to the Presidential Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Prior to her Presidential appointments, Mrs.
King directed the Pennsylvania Governor's Washington, D.C. office for six years, following her service as senior legislative assistant to US Senator John
Heinz (R-PA).
Mrs. King was a Founding Partner of The Directors' Council. She is a director of Lockheed Martin Corporation and Monsanto Company, and ended 12 years of
service on the board of Marsh and McLennan Companies in May 2011. She served for six years as director of the National Association of Corporate Directors,
from 2004-2010. She is a trustee of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA.
Mrs. King graduated from Howard University and did graduate work at George Washington University. She received honorary doctorates from the University
of New Haven and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the American Black Achievement Award from Johnson Publishing Company; and the Drum Major for
Justice Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Washington Business Journal has selected her as an Outstanding Director in 2012.
She is married to Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King. The couple has endowed a Chair in Public Policy at Howard
University.
Michael Freeman, Managing Partner
 Mr. Freeman has been involved in government, corporate, and non-profit communications in the Washington, D.C. area for over 25
years. In addition to serving as managing partner of Podium Prose, he is executive vice president of the Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of
chief executives of the nation's leading health care companies and organizations.
Prior to that, Mr. Freeman was chief speechwriter for the Social Security Administration. While in that post, he was honored by the National Association
of Government Communicators as the nation's top government speechwriter. He was also president of the Freeman Masters Group, an Alexandria, Virginia-based
communications firm that provided consulting services to a variety of for-profit, non-profit, and government clients.
Mr. Freeman came to Washington, D.C. in 1980 as press secretary for U.S. Senator James Abdnor (R-SD) and also served as the primary press spokesperson
for the congressional Joint Economic Committee. From 1987 to 1988, he was communications staff director for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
under then-Chairman Clarence Thomas.
To e-mail Michael, write to mfreeman@podiumprose.com
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