Operating Principles
Who We Are:
John Crisp - CEO/President/Partner
John Crisp is President, Partner and Chief Executive Officer of AkinsCrisp Public Strategies. A proven strategist and manager, Crisp has more than thirty years experience managing or consulting with corporate, government, political and non-profit organizations on public relations, communications and public affairs initiatives.
Working from the firm's Nashville office, Crisp has led many of AkinsCrisp's largest and national integrated public relations and advertising accounts for the past twelve years including the firm's national highway safety work for the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration, the State of Tennessee's Economic Development Department and Governor's Highway Safety Office, and many others.
Crisp has also led the firm's work in support of the Tennessee Valley Corridor, Inc., a national award-winning regional economic and technology development organization, led by ten Members of Congress and a board of directors representing the major public and private sector science, technology and higher education institutions in the Tennessee Valley. In addition, Crisp has managed the firm's activities in support of dozens of other important national, regional and local clients.
Before joining AkinsCrisp, Crisp served as President and CEO of the Strategic Communications Group in Nashville. Previously, he lived in Washington D.C. for seven years and served as a Special Assistant and Counselor for Communications to the U.S. Secretary of Education where he worked closely with the nation's Governors to mobilize thousands of local communities and activists for the Bush 41 Administration's AMERICA 2000 grassroots education reform initiative. Since working with the national political consulting and advertising firm, Bailey, Deardourff & Sipple in the late-80s, Crisp has consulted with over 40 political candidates and campaigns across the country ranging from U.S. President to U.S. Senate and Congressional campaigns to local legislative and mayoral races. In the early 80s, he served as an assistant to former Tennessee Governor (now U.S. Senator) Lamar Alexander.
A Knoxville native, and a graduate of Doyle High School and The University of Tennessee, Crisp and his wife Meg, a certified public accountant and former head of administration and recruiting for the Nashville office of Arthur Andersen, have been married for 28 years, and they have three children.
