Board of Directors
Public Relations Advisor
Doug Poretz
Founding Partner
Qorvis Communications LLC
DOUG PORETZ, is a Founding Partner of Qorvis Communications LLC, a fully integrated public relations firm with offices in Tysons Corner, Virginia and Washington, DC.He has more than two decades of investor relations experience, which he gained after establishing a career in the broader area of public relations and corporate communications. When it comes to critical business issues, from private placements to IPOs and secondary offerings of debt and equity, to mergers and acquisitions to Chapter 11 filings, he has "been there, done that." Since his first job at age 23, he has always reported to an organization's chief executive either on an in-house or retained basis. He has been involved with a variety of companies from startups to large cap, from local to multinational, from Nasdaq to NYSE, and from basic industries to the most advanced technology.
In 1991, after holding senior management positions at three publicly owned corporations, he founded The Poretz Group, the first investor relations firm based in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. As he built that company, it developed particular expertise serving technology and "New Economy" companies. As The Poretz Group grew, Poretz became increasingly active in both regional business affairs and the investor relations business. He was named to the Executive Committee of The Northern Virginia Roundtable, the region's most important organization for business leaders. As a member of the Roundtable, he created and chaired the Greater Washington Technology Investor Conferences of 1997 and 1998, which attracted institutional investors and sell-side analysts from around the nation to hear presentations by public and pre-public companies based in the DC area. He also created the Roundtable's 1995, 1998, and 2001 Dinners, which were benchmark events bringing together business and investment leaders in the region and serving as the venue for the premier of widely distributed videos about the growth of the region, which he conceived and produced. He has been a featured speaker at major investor relations conferences from New York to Los Angeles, as well as at numerous conferences for entrepreneurs and business executives concerned about how to access the capital markets. He is quoted virtually weekly in business pages around the nation, and is frequently invited to author opinion columns for business publications.
In August 2000, The Poretz Group merged with Weber Merritt and JAS Consulting to create Qorvis Communications. Since then, Poretz has been involved in broadening the company's range of services. In the approximately 18 months from the time of its founding to early 2002, Qorvis has grown from less than 20 people to 45 people, and it is believed to be the largest independently owned public relations firm in the Washington area.
Prior to founding The Poretz Group, he was Vice President for Corporate Affairs at NVR, Inc., an American Stock Exchange-listed company. At the time he joined the company, it was a small regional home building company that recently had its IPO. Over the course of Poretz's four years with the company, it became the nation's largest homebuilder, through several acquisitions, aggressive internal growth, and internal start-ups. The company grew to include a mortgage banking company with offices in major markets throughout the nation, a federal savings bank, and several other related business units. During this time, Poretz played a key role in public offerings of debt and equity (including designing and participating in road shows), and represented the company at major institutional investor conferences. NVR became his first client when he established The Poretz Group in January 1991.
Before joining NVR, Poretz had similar assignments at Planning Research Corporation (PRC) and Flow General Inc. At the time he joined PRC, it was a New York Stock Exchange-listed company that billed itself as "The World's Largest Professional Services Company." The company's shares had languished for years at about the same price ($10-$12). Working as a part of the senior management team, and reporting directly to the Chairman/CEO, Poretz helped develop the strategy and led the communications strategy for repositioning the company into a company more heavily focused on computer systems integration. Within an 18-month period, the company gained significantly increased visibility with the investment community and major new analytical coverage, and was sold at $33.55 per share in an amicable sale to Emhart Corporation. PRC was one of the first professional services companies to be valued on the basis on revenue.
For three years at Flow General, which was also a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, he oversaw the company's multinational communications program during a period of massive change: three CEOs, criminal and civil suits, a Department of Defense debarment hearing, acquisitions and divestitures, and public offerings of debt and equity. During that time, Poretz served as the company's chief spokesperson to investors globally.
Before focusing his career in the area of investor relations, Poretz founded and grew his own generalist public relations firm based in Washington, D.C. That firm represented economic development agencies, trade and professional associations, and a wide variety of businesses. He began his career as Public Information Officer for the Alexandria (VA) City Public Schools, for which he coordinated the community relations programs for the integration of first the secondary schools and then the elementary schools. As part of his effort in the integration of the secondary schools, he was the architect of using the T.C. Williams football team of "Remember the Titans" fame for community relations purposes; and his work related to the integration of the elementary schools was cited in an editorial in The New York Times as a model for the nation.
Poretz is active in many business, investment community and charitable activities. He is on the board of The Hospices of the National Capital Region (he served two years as Chair), which he helped transition from being on the verge of financial collapse to being one of the largest and most innovative hospices in the nation. He is also a Board member of the Greater Washington Chapter of the American Red Cross, and the Fairfax (Virginia) Chamber of Commerce. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Fairfax-Falls Church United Way. He graduated with a BA in Philosophy from The George Washington University in 1967. He and his wife Eloise live with their teenage son in Potomac, Maryland. Eloise is active in several community organizations and serves on the board of Wolf Trap Associates, among others.
