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Who

Edelman heads the largest independent PR firm in the United States, Edelman, Inc.

Backstory

Richard is the son of Dan Edelman, the public relations maestro who founded Edelman Inc. in 1952. Richard had a charmed life growing up, attending tony Phillips Exeter and Harvard before moving on to Harvard Business School. As a newly minted MBA, he didn't initially plan on joining the family business; he'd landed a job offer in product management at Playtex tampons, a "dream job for a 23-year-old guy." His father seemed to think otherwise—go figure—and convinced him to join the company with the proviso that if he wasn't happy he could leave after a year. Needless to say, he didn't quit—and the firm has since grown exponentially as it expanded abroad, acquired smaller rivals, and introduced new practice groups. After learning from his father for two decades and spending time running European operations and the New York office, the younger Edelman assumed the top job in 1996. His octogenarian dad isn't out of the picture entirely, though—he remains the company's chairman.

Of note

These days the company—which employs 1,800-plus workers worldwide—is one of top PR firms around and is credited with pioneering a series of PR niches over the past two decades, including litigation PR and environmental PR. Edelman has represented a long list of blue-chip companies including Schering-Plough, the Gap, Bertelsmann, Microsoft, and Viacom. One of the clients that's kept Edelman busiest is perpetually controversial Wal-Mart, which has come under fire for gender discrimination, anti-unionism, and other acts of corporate malevolence. Closer to home, Edelman waged a high-profile PR battle on behalf of the insurance company Swiss Re after the company ended up in a contentious lawsuit with real estate developer Larry Silverstein (who was represented by Howard Rubenstein) over the insurance payouts related to the attacks on the World Trade Center. Despite numerous acquisition offers over the years, Edelman, Inc. continues to be privately-held. And it remains a family business: Richard's brother, sister, and mom, have all done time at the company.

Drama

Edelman took heat in 2006 after BusinessWeek broke the news that a seemingly harmless pro-Walmart blog, Wal-Marting Across America, was actually an Edelman creation. What bloggers found particularly galling was that Edelman—and the firm's in-house "blog expert" Steve Rubel—had long made "transparency" one of the firm's core principles and had criticized competitors who had used similarly underhanded PR tactics in the past. Edelman used his own blog on Edelman.com to apologize for the incident.

Campaign trail

Edelman is close friends with former Connecticut senatorial candidate Ned Lamont (the two were high school classmates), and it was Edelman who introduced Lamont to his wife. He was a major fundraiser for Lamont's doomed bid for Senate.

Personal

Richard is married to Rosalind "Roz" Edelman, a former investment banker. They have three daughters and live on West End Avenue, in the same building as New Yorker scribe Jeffrey Toobin and Broadway star Bernadette Peters.