Richard N. Hargraves, Laclede Gas Company
Rick Hargraves is Director of Corporate Communications for Laclede Gas Company, the largest natural gas distribution company in Missouri, serving more than 630,000 customers in the St. Louis metropolitan area and elsewhere in eastern Missouri. He directs Laclede Gas activities in the areas of public relations, advertising, employee communications, production of the Annual Report, and a variety of related functions supporting senior executives. Prior to joining Laclede in 1987, he was a newspaper editor and manager, serving as Metro Editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and before that as Political Editor, City Editor, and Editorial Page Editor for newspapers in Belleville, Illinois, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also owned and published two weekly newspapers in North Central Illinois. Hargraves is an honors graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Denise Bentele Heintz, APR, The Standing Partnership
As Senior Vice President of Client Service, Denise oversees The Standing Partnership account staff and serves as a senior advisor for most of the firm's clients. Her corporate communications responsibilities have included employee communications, media relations and crisis management for companies including, Sisters of Mercy, McCarthy Construction, The Doe Run Company, Caterpillar, PET Foods, ConAgra and Emerson Electric, as a counselor with Fleishman-Hillard, and in her current role at The Standing Partnership. She received a coveted PRSA Silver Anvil for crisis communications with the Sisters of Mercy Health System. Based on SuperVoice--the respected program of the chemical and petroleum industries--Denise has also exercised her crisis communications training in situations ranging from a ruptured Amoco gasoline pipeline and subsequent environmental threat, to the failed merger of two U.S. airlines. She is immediate past-president of the St. Louis chapter of PRSA.

Ed Madden, ProWolfe Partners
Ed held design positions as Anspach, Grossman, Portugal, New York and Fleishman-Hillard, St. Louis before heading his own design office, The Madden Group, from 1986 to 1997. Most recently, he was Integrated Communications Director for Kearns Communication Group in Dayton, Ohio before joining ProWolfe Partners in 2000. Ed studied art, architecture and writing at St. Louis University and Washington University.

Jim Schnurbusch, Hughes
As President/COO of the Hughes Agency, Jim embraces his role of a cheerleader who believes in the value of Hughes’ proprietary SmartWork™ approach. Jim recognizes the impact that technology has on the future of the business world. Jim’s contribution to Hughes clients is his progressive, creative thinking about the online environment that is based on proven offline street sense and strategic fundamentals. Jim’s career started at D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles and he brings 20 years of marketing experience to Hughes.

Moderator - Jerry Bryan, APR, Fellow, Bryan Consulting