At Fiona Hutton & Associates, we develop winning strategies for a broad spectrum of high-profile clients. Among our past and current clients are corporations, non-profit organizations, government agencies and municipalities, trade associations and statewide political campaigns involved in complex and often controversial policy issues, including energy, health care, scientific and medical research, land use, water, banking, agriculture and the environment. |
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The California Association of Health Plans, a statewide trade association representing 39 full-service health care plans, chose Fiona Hutton & Associates in August 2007 to provide strategic counsel and help implement the association’s advocacy and communications goals. Our firm continues to provide strategic and media relations counsel to the association on critical issues facing health plans. |
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The Home Depot, one of the nation’s largest home improvement retailers, selected Fiona Hutton & Associates to provide strategic communications and media relations counsel in Southern California, as the company moves forward with the entitlement of new stores, management of ongoing operations and community partnerships. |
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Fiona Hutton and Associates was retained in 2009 to manage the collateral development, media relations, social media and outreach for the California State Parks Initiative, a statewide ballot initiative slated for the November 2010 California ballot that would ensure that all of California’s state parks open for future generations to enjoy. |
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The Alliance for Clean Water and Jobs retained Fiona Hutton and Associates to manage the coalition building and the social media for the Safe Clean and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010 campaign. Our company is currently at work building a strong, broad base of supporters as well as developing a streamlined website and social media tools. |
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Vulcan Materials, the nation’s largest producer of construction aggregates, retained Fiona Hutton & Associates in 2010 to provide strategic communications, coalition documents and tool kit materials for projects moving through the environmental review process. |
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When the Hermosa Beach City Council needed a team to handle its communications and public information programs, they turned to Fiona Hutton & Associates. City leaders wanted a firm they could trust to manage the City’s public information function – a team with the experience and knowledge of the specific communications challenges and public information needs facing cities – that is why they hired us. Our firm worked with city leaders to develop a public information plan and to handle the City’s overall communications and media relations function – making sure that there was a system in place to communicate with the public. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates was retained in 2009 to create and implement Conserving California, a statewide public education program about the value of investing in land, water and parks. Conserving California is a program presented by Audubon California, California Council of Land Trusts, Ocean Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy and WiLDCOAST. |
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The Association of California Egg Farmers, a nonprofit statewide trade association representing the state’s egg producers, selected Fiona Hutton & Associates to provide strategic communications and media relations counsel, as the organization advocates for clear-cut standards for complying with recently passed Proposition 2 and other critical issues facing California’s egg industry. |
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The Association of California Water Agencies, a coalition of 450 public water agencies, sought out Fiona Hutton & Associates in 2007 to manage and implement a multi-million dollar public education program. The program educated Californians about critical challenges to the state’s water supply and delivery system through television, radio and print advertising, as well as Internet and community outreach. As a result of that program, Californians’ awareness of the issues grew by 34 percent in just two months, according to a poll of state residents. |
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The Southern California Water Committee, an organization dedicated to informing Southern California about the state’s ongoing water issues, selected Fiona Hutton & Associates to provide organizational support and manage outreach efforts for its communications, education and advocacy goals. Fiona Hutton & Associates is working to revitalize the Southern California Water Committee and bring the organization to the forefront of the ongoing discussion about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the state’s water crisis. |
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Weintraub Financial Services, a full service real estate firm, retained Fiona Hutton & Associates in 2008 to provide strategic communications, collateral development and outreach services for retail and mixed-use projects in Southern California as they move through permitting and entitlement processes. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates played a critical role in the winning campaign in support of Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97, the Indian gaming agreements California voters overwhelmingly approved in February 2008. In one of the most expensive initiative campaign battles in the state’s history, the campaign trusted Fiona Hutton to serve as one of the campaign’s spokespersons for television and radio news outlets. Our firm also wrote and placed dozens of opinion editorials in newspapers throughout California and ran an aggressive newspaper editorial board outreach program that resulted in the endorsement of major publications, such as the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune. |
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The City of Malibu retained Fiona Hutton & Associates in 2009 to help manage the City’s communications and media relations on a variety of issues. Our firm’s media relations efforts have led to a variety of coverage in Malibu’s local newspapers and primetime television news stories. |
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City National Bank, the largest independent bank headquartered in Southern California, sought out Fiona Hutton & Associates in 2007 to provide strategy and manage outreach efforts for City National Bank’s advocacy and communications goals. Our firm created and managed a public affairs campaign that helped raise awareness among opinion leaders and key policymakers about the billions of tax dollars California has lost to the federal government and the need to get California its fair share of these funds. |
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Woodside Natural Gas (a subsidiary of Woodside Petroleum – a global energy firm) chose Fiona Hutton & Associates to develop its strategic planning, communications and media relations for the complex and comprehensive entitlement and environmental review process for its OceanWay natural gas project in California. Working closely with a team of governmental affairs, legal, community outreach and technical professionals, our firm has formulated external messaging, produced collateral materials, provided media training and helped manage OceanWay’s media relations. |
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In spring 2004, the fabled Los Angeles Dodgers were sold by News Corporation to private owners, Frank and Jamie McCourt, after unanimous approval of the $430 million transaction by Major League Baseball. New to the Los Angeles region, the McCourt family retained Fiona Hutton & Associates to manage initial messaging and all communications surrounding the actual ownership vote, its accompanying national news conference, announcement of new key executive management and the 2004 season’s Opening Day. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates played a leading role in the overwhelming voter approval of Proposition 71, the California stem cell initiative, in 2004. Fiona Hutton served as the campaign spokesperson and managed all national and statewide communications, earned media and coalition-building efforts for this intensely watched, high-profile and controversial statewide ballot measure. An aggressive earned media campaign garnered extensive coverage on the Today Show, 20/20, NBC Nightly News, CNN, ABC World News Tonight, Entertainment Tonight and Fox News, as well as more than a thousand additional news stories. Fiona Hutton & Associates also built and managed one of the largest coalitions ever for a statewide healthcare initiative. |
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The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA), the non-profit organization formed to support the Los Angeles Zoo, sought out Fiona Hutton & Associates in 2007 to assist in the development and implementation of a comprehensive public affairs and media relations program to support initiatives undertaken by GLAZA to support the zoo. GLAZA has taken a primary role in funding zoo educational and conservation efforts, as well as the construction of new animal exhibits. |
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The State Water Contractors, representing 27 of California’s public water agencies, has retained Fiona Hutton & Associates to provide ongoing strategic counsel as well as comprehensive communications, media relations and outreach planning to advocate for public policy, regulatory and legislative efforts that involve statewide water supply, water quality and environmental restoration issues. |
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The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a consortium of 26 cities and water districts that provides drinking water to nearly 18 million people in Southern California. With its expertise in water issues, Fiona Hutton & Associates has provided strategic counsel to the agency on issues including water quality, supply and reliability. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates developed a comprehensive communications program for Sterling Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: SLFI), a diversified financial institution serving the Eastern seaboard, after the financial firm was hit with a major operational and public relations crisis in 2007. Sterling hired our firm again when it announced its acquisition by PNC Financial Services in a $565 million merger. |
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The Coachella Valley Water District, a multi-faceted water agency serving 1,000 square miles of the Inland Empire, chose Fiona Hutton & Associates to provide strategic counsel and communications guidance as it grapples with ongoing challenges. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates managed the communications, coalition-building and community outreach that helped lead to the approval of Cypress Knolls, a 700+ unit housing community on a 186-acre site formerly occupied by Fort Ord on the Monterey Peninsula. Front Porch, California’s largest not-for-profit operator of senior living communities, is the developer of the project. |
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With its extensive experience in stem cell research measures, Fiona Hutton & Associates was hired to provide the strategic, media relations and coalition-building counsel that helped the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures win voter approval in 2006 of Amendment 2. One of the nation’s most controversial and closely watched ballot measure campaigns that year, Amendment 2 protects the right of Missouri patients to have their diseases and injuries treated with any stem cell cures allowed by federal law and available to other Americans. The popular, national television game show, Jeopardy, even included questions about this political campaign, reflecting the intensity of news coverage. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates played a critical role in the successful campaign to win voter approval in 2006 of Proposition 84, the largest conservation bond ever on a state ballot. We provided strategic communications counsel, media relations and statewide coalition-building efforts for the campaign. Our outreach ultimately secured the largest coalition of supporters of any ballot measure on that year’s November ballot, a key element in the Election Day victory. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates provided the strategic counsel and communications guidance that helped the City of Santa Clarita reach a compromise in a long-running dispute with a large mining operation, resulting in a solution both sides called a “win-win.” The Los Angeles Daily News heralded the compromise as “an object lesson in the value of community leadership and organization.” Our firm continues to work with the city to build support for federal legislation implementing the “win-win” agreement. |
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National Penn Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: NPBC), the parent company of National Penn Bank and Investors Trust Company, retained Fiona Hutton & Associates in 2005 to provide communications and crisis management strategies after it discovered more than $6 million in bank funds had been stolen by an employee. Our firm handled message development and media relations strategy, as well as investor, community and internal relations communications. |
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Through our extensive outreach skills, Fiona Hutton & Associates built a coalition of supporters that helped the Morongo Band of Mission Indians win legislative and gubernatorial approval of Assembly Bill 266 in 2007. The measure ratified the tribe’s gaming compact, which will bring millions of dollars annually to the state’s general fund. Our outreach program garnered the support of statewide business, public health, medical, environmental and seniors’ organizations for AB 266. |
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Faced with a political challenge that could devastate egg production in California, the United Egg Producers and the Pacific Egg & Poultry Association called on Fiona Hutton & Associates to develop and manage a statewide outreach and coalition-building program to support California egg producers. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates continued its highly regarded work in the stem cell research advocacy community by spearheading communications for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine ("the Institute") as this new state agency opened its doors for business. The Institute was established in 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, to make grants and provide loans for stem cell research and facilities. |
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PacifiCorp, which serves more than 1.5 million customers, hired Fiona Hutton & Associates for communications, outreach and coalition-building strategies for its California operations. As the owner/manager of five hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River in Oregon and Northern California, PacifiCorp was facing a lengthy and controversial relicensing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates managed the public affairs, coalition-building and communications efforts in the successful launch of the United States’ first diaper recycling program. Based in Toronto, Knowaste had spent a decade developing and optimizing a unique, patented process for recycling disposable baby diapers. It trusted our firm to launch that inaugural program in the Los Angeles region and to increase media awareness of diaper recycling in the United States, European Union and Asian markets. Through our extensive media relationships, the diaper recycling program garnered an unprecedented level of regional, statewide, national and international media coverage, including the New York Times, The Economist, Associated Press, CNN, BBC, Discovery Channel and all major network affiliates. The program is included today as the answer to a question in the Hasboro board game, Trivial Pursuit, volume 6. |
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Zurich Life and Kemper Insurance companies developed one of the largest water storage projects in California, The Delta Wetlands Project. The companies trusted Fiona Hutton & Associates to develop a comprehensive statewide and regional communications and public outreach program to highlight the program’s benefits, build support among interest groups (environmental, water, agricultural, business, labor, etc.) and to support and leverage government affairs, lobbying and legal activities at the statewide and local level. |
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Faced with the prospect of legislation that would have denied Kansans access to potentially lifesaving cures, the Kansas Coalition for Lifesaving Cures sought the expert advice of Fiona Hutton & Associates on building a coalition and managing media relations surrounding the controversial health care issue of stem cell therapies and cures. Our firm’s advice helped establish the organization and mobilize it in its winning campaign to defeat the legislation. |
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Fiona Hutton & Associates managed all statewide communications and coalition building for the winning campaign for Proposition 50, a $3.44 billion statewide water bond on the 2002 ballot. Through our aggressive outreach efforts, we were able to enlist support from water districts and organizations, environmental organizations, public health groups, business organizations, government officials, civic and community groups, agricultural organizations and educators. |
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A wide-ranging consortium of interests came together in a successful campaign to enact Proposition 40, the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Coastal Protection and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond Act, in 2002. With long-term relationships in the business, environmental, water and land-use communities, Fiona Hutton & Associates was retained by The Nature Conservancy, the single largest contributor to Proposition 40, to serve on and manage the campaign’s finance committee, developing and implementing goals and strategies for the $7 million fundraising effort. |
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Faced with explaining a controversial business decision, one of the state’s largest insurers called on Fiona Hutton & Associates to develop and implement a proactive communications and public affairs strategy to manage, support and leverage pending legal and public policy issues. Our firm developed strategic messages and a detailed communications plan to help the public and policy makers understand 21st Century’s decision to exit the homeowners and earthquake insurance market in California in the wake of the Northridge earthquake. |
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Black & Veatch Corporation, a global engineering firm, hired Fiona Hutton & Associates to promote its proposal to fix the ailing Salton Sea, the largest inland lake in California. Our firm provided strategic counsel, media relations and other communications support to increase public awareness of Black & Veatch’s proposal. |
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