RICHARD E. VAN DEUSEN, formed Media Strategies, Inc. (formerly Van Deusen Associates, Inc.) in 1995. Prior to that, Mr. Van Deusen managed a variety of communications functions during a 30-year career with The Prudential Insurance Company of America, beginning in sales promotion and advertising. As head of Corporate Audio Visual Communications he created a full-service media operation including photography, computer graphics, slide production, video, audio and national sales conference support.

His accomplishments at Prudential range from the installation of the company's first television studio in 1967 and a 1972 pilot program proving the validity of videotape for sales skills training to implementing the company’s business television network. He consulted on Board room and training center design, designed a pioneering multimedia presentation to market real estate brokerage franchises and developed the company’s (and perhaps the industry’s) first chargeback system.

Mr. Van Deusen became Director of Communications and speechwriter for Prudential's president in the early 1990s. He was then asked to return to AV to reengineer the 26-person media production group, reducing total expenses by half and staff by 65% in response to changing organizational needs.

At various times during his career he was an Activity Value Analysis unit leader and a departmental Information Systems Executive. He developed and implemented the benchmarking study that resulted in Prudential’s first strategic communications plan. For several years he was Prudential's representative to the AV Communications Committee of the Association of National Advertisers and, in 1992, served on the New Jersey State Governor’s Review Commission to reengineer media production in state government.

Mr. Van Deusen is a founder of the International Television Association (now the Media Communications Association International), holding membership number one. He is an accredited member of the Communications Media Management Association (CMMA) and recently served as Treasurer of the New Jersey Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). He is author of Financial Management for Media Operations, published by Knowledge Industry Publications in 1995. His book, Management Matters, drawn from over fifty columns written for Video Manager magazine, was published by the ITVA in 1996. He is co-author of the 1996 benchmarking study on media production Outsource or Insource; Making the Right Choice. He managed the Management Masters Seminar for the ITVA national conferences from 1997 to 2000 and is a frequent keynote speaker at industry meetings. He is project manager and co-author of Dynamic Media in Transition, a report on the present and future of the media industry sponsored by the Webb Foundation, published by Knowledge Industry Publications in 2001.

Mr. Van Deusen holds a BA from Dickinson College and a Masters from Boston University and has attended numerous executive management programs.

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