With over 25 years of corporate, public affairs, and crisis management experience, Loren Riegelhaupt serves as president of New York public affairs and a principal at SKDK. He also launched and co-leads the firm’s healthcare vertical. In addition to overseeing the New York offices, Loren serves as the lead strategist and crisis manager for clients dealing with prominent and complex public issues, ranging from healthcare mergers and budget debates to issue advocacy (#metoo, BLM, Fight for $15, removal of Confederate monuments, climate change, and others) to full crisis events such as pandemic response, government and regulatory investigations, and activist investor campaigns.
Throughout his career, Loren has delivered compelling strategic and innovative public relations campaigns for clients facing crises and regulatory and public interest challenges. For each client, Loren has served as the lead communications advisor and point person for crafting, organizing, and delivering an aggressive, thoughtful, and successful communications strategy and campaign.
Leading the healthcare vertical in New York, Loren has directed and managed dozens of successful national and regional campaigns for major healthcare systems, healthcare unions, medical schools, physician networks, health insurers, long-term care and home health organizations, and various other healthcare organizations. These campaigns have included crisis response, budget negotiations, legislative debates, regulatory disputes, mergers and acquisitions, executive thought leadership, real estate development, community engagement, and pandemic response, to name a few.
Most recently, during the COVID pandemic, Loren was responsible for the internal communications and external crisis communications for one of the largest health systems in New York. This work included helping to build and run a rapid response communications program as well as a multi-tiered internal communications platform for the roughly 45,000 employees. The work was shortlisted as a finalist for a 2021 SABRE Awards — North America for Employee Activism/Engagement.
Loren lives in Rye, New York, with his wife and three children, where he has served as a board member of Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, as a volunteer for various nonprofits, and as an occasional triathlete. He graduated from Colgate University in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
