Scott Douglas Widmeyer

Scott Widmeyer has a distinguished background providing strategic counsel to leading decision-makers from presidents and governors to Cabinet secretaries, CEOs and college presidents.

A native of Martinsburg, West Virginia, and a 1975 graduate of WVU’s Reed College of Media, Widmeyer’s professional career began as a reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail. He later served as press secretary to Governor Jay Rockefeller and held similar positions with President Jimmy Carter, the late Vice President Walter Mondale, the late Geraldine Ferraro and the late Albert Shanker.

He launched Widmeyer Communications in 1988 and grew it to become one of the largest independent nationally recognized firms focused on education, health, public affairs and crisis management. In 2013, in its largest acquisition to date, Finn Partners acquired the Widmeyer agency where Scott Widmeyer continues to serve as a founding managing partner.

His deep commitment to making a difference in the world comes through very clearly in his board service and philanthropy. Widmeyer now chairs The George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs National Council and holds seats on the boards of Women Heart, the Leadership  Academy, the Country Roads Angel Network, the Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communications, St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, the Catskill Mountain Foundation and the Education Writers Association. He also has chaired the Visiting Committee for the Reed College of Media and headed the School’s capital campaign. He also formerly chaired the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

Widmeyer and his family have long been supporters of the College of Media at WVU where they endowed the Widmeyer Professorship of Public Relations currently held by Dean Diana Martinelli. Additionally, the family has provided scholarship support to dozens of College of Media students. After witnessing the divisiveness that permeates our nation, in 2017 Widmeyer helped launch and fund a joint reporting collaborative for journalism students at both WVU and GWU who work together on critical topics including the opioid epidemic, energy policy and communities underserved by “media deserts.”

Widmeyer holds honors in many circles including being named a David Rockefeller Fellow, inducted into the WVU Academy of Distinguished Alumni and the PR News Hall of Fame as well as receiving PR Week’s Diversity Distinction Award, the P.I. Reed Achievement Award at WVU and the Distinguished West Virginian Award from then-Governor Bob Wise.