Robert Stephen Leaf ( August 9, 1931 – June 10, 2021) was an American public relations executive. He is best known for creating the international network of offices which made
Burson-Marsteller
Burson (formerly Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW)) is a global public relations and communications firm, headquartered in New York City, focused on building reputation for clients.
In February 2018, parent WPP Group PLC announced that it had merged it ...
the world's largest public relations firm in the 1980s, where he eventually rose to be international chairman.
Debrett's
Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company and publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John ...
have recognised him as one of Britain's 500 most influential people.
Early life
Leaf was born in New York City on August 9, 1931. He attended
Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School ( ) is a co-ed, State school, public, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in Manhattan, New York City. The school, commonly called "Stuy" ( ) by its students, faculty, a ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
, the world's first school of journalism. Initially he was interested in pursuing a career in sports journalism, but after attending classes in advertising and public relations he decided that was where his future lay. At college, Leaf also developed a keen interest in history and international relations and, after receiving his bachelor of journalism degree with honors in 1952, he received an MA with honors in history in 1954.
Army
After graduation, Leaf served in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
for two years. After
basic training
Military recruit training, commonly known as basic training or boot camp, refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. It is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the unique dema ...
, he was posted to
Fort Eustis
Fort Eustis is a United States Army installation in Newport News, Virginia. In 2010, it was combined with nearby Langley Air Force Base to form Joint Base Langley–Eustis.
The post is the home to the United States Army Training and Doctrin ...
, Virginia for a few months, then army headquarters at
Orléans
Orléans (,"Orleans" (US) and who lectured to the troops. Among his subjects were the different cultural attitudes they would encounter while stationed overseas, and how best to get on with the British, French and Germans.
Burson-Marsteller
Leaf moved back to the United States in 1956 and went to live with his widowed mother in New York, while searching for a job. For a short while he worked for a show business publicist where his main clients included
Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and ...
, who helped start television in the United States,
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
and
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress, singer, comedian and author. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in '' St. Louis Woman'' in 1946. She received a Special Tony Award for the ti ...
. He then obtained an interview with a small PR firm called Burson-Marsteller which was looking for its first trainee, and got the job.
He joined Burson-Marsteller on July 1, 1957, alongside its then six executives. The business grew rapidly and soon Leaf was promoted and given assistants, one of whom was Mary Travers – soon far better known as the Mary in the vocal group
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American Contemporary folk music, folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival. The trio consisted of Peter Yarrow (guitar, tenor vocals), Paul Stookey (guitar, baritone vocals), ...
.
Harold Burson had also been stationed overseas in the army and felt that it offered great opportunities for the firm to represent American clients there. He appointed Leaf head of international operations and, in 1965, he was sent to
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
on a one-year assignment. Three years later he was transferred to London, where he still resided.
Overseas growth
Credited as "the father of public relations", Leaf went on to create a global network of offices which helped Burson-Marsteller become the world's biggest PR firm during his tenure.
After giving a speech in Moscow, B-M was hired by Vneshtorgreklama, the Russian state advertising agency during the Cold War, and helped set up the first PR firm in the Soviet Union. Leaf also signed a partnership agreement with the Chinese government in the
Great Hall of the People
The Great Hall of the People is a state building situated to the west of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the government of the People's Republic of China. The People's Great Hall functions as ...
to establish the first official Chinese Government PR firm. He launched the first international PR firm in the Middle East and started Burson-Marsteller offices throughout Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.
In 1997, after 40 years with Burson-Marsteller, he stood down as their International chairman and established his own firm, Robert S. Leaf Consultants, which is based in the Burson-Marsteller building in London. He still advised Burson-Marsteller.
Awards
In 2000, Leaf was given the Chartered Institute of Public Relations first ever 'Alan Campbell Award', for outstanding contributions to international public relations and, in 2011, he received journalism's highest award Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service to Journalism from his alma mater, the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
. Previous recipients include
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American author and retired network television journalist. He first served as the co-anchor of Today (American TV program), ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anch ...
,
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trust ...
,
George Gallup
George Horace Gallup (November 18, 1901 – July 26, 1984) was an American pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll, a statistics, statistically-based survey sampling, survey sampled measure of opinion polls, public ...
and
Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
. He is listed in
Who's Who in America
Marquis Who's Who, also known as A.N. Marquis Company ( or ), is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in A ...
,Who's Who in the World, Debrett's People of Today. In January 2014, he was included in 'The Debrett's 500', a list of people considered by them as Britain's 500 most influential people.
Books
In 2012, Leaf published his memoirs, ''The Art of Perception''. It was described in The Reality Gap as:
Since the publication of the book, Leaf has been spending his time talking at conferences and lecturing at leading business and journalism schools in the UK and the US.
He is also a founder of the
Public Relations Consultants Association
The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) is a trade association for the public relations sector in the United Kingdom. The association lobbies on behalf of its member companies and also provides a forum for sharing information. ...
.
Personal life
While still working at B-M's New York office Leaf received a phone call from Adele Ornstein, who had been a fellow student at Joan of Arc Junior High School in New York whom he had not seen in 12 years but hadn't forgotten, so they started dating. They were married in June 1958, their son, Stuart, was born in 1961 and they have two grandchildren.
OpenCorporates
OpenCorporates is a website that shares data on corporations under the copyleft Open Database Licence, Open Database License. The company, OpenCorporates Ltd, was incorporated on 18 December 2010 by Chris Taggart and Rob McKinnon, and the websit ...