Ken Sunshine (born March 12, 1948) is an American

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

consultant, co-CEO and founder of Sunshine Sachs Consultants. He began his career in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

politics, including serving as chief of staff for Mayor

David Dinkins David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office. Before enteri ...

Early life

Sunshine was raised on Long Island and graduated from the

School of Industrial and Labor Relations The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University (ILR) is an industrial relations school and one of the four New York State contract colleges at Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, United States. The ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1970 where he was involved in activities to promote social change and political change.

Career

Sunshine started as a

community organizer Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community bui ...

and became a district delegate for George McGovern. He then ran the public relations department of ASCAP, where he supervised music events. In the 1970s, he joined

Bella Abzug Bella Savitzky Abzug (July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998), nicknamed "Battling Bella", was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steine ...

's Senate, mayoral and congressional campaigns with

Harold Holzer Harold Holzer (born February 5, 1949) is a scholar of Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the American Civil War Era. He serves as director of Hunter College's Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. Holzer previously spent twenty-thr ...

. From 1990 to 1993, Sunshine served as the chief of staff for Mayor David Dinkins, a job that included managing future New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. In 1994, he worked on

Mario Cuomo Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as ...

's gubernatorial campaign and is an advisor to New York Governor

Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...

. In 2013, he served on mayor-elect Bill DeBlasio's transition team.

Sunshine Sachs Consultants

In 1991, Sunshine launched the public relations firm Ken Sunshine Consultants. The company was renamed the following year to reflect principal Shawn Sachs's partnership. The initial clients included

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

, 1199: The National Health Care Workers' Union and the 1992 Democratic National Convention working with

Ron Brown Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairman of the Democratic National Co ...

, then chairman of the Democratic Party. Sunshine Sachs specializes in corporate image programs,

crisis communication Crisis communication is a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. Crisis communication is aimed at raising awarenes ...

reputation management Reputation management, originally a public relations term, refers to the influencing, controlling, enhancing, or concealing of an individual's or group's reputation. The growth of the internet and social media led to growth of reputation manage ...

and issues management, consumer and lifestyle marketing, public affairs, media relations, event promotion, and communications skills training. In 2014, Sunshine Sachs was named the number one public relations agency in New York by ''New York Observer''. His clients have included

John Thain John Alexander Thain (born May 26, 1955) is an American businessman, investment banker, and former chair and CEO of the CIT Group. Thain was the last chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch before its merger with Bank of America. ...

Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS education ...

, and the convicted sex offender

Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films includ ...

. His best-known work includes representing

Jussie Smollett Jussie Smollett (, born June 21, 1982) is an American actor and singer. He began his career as a child actor in 1991 debuting in '' The Mighty Ducks'' (1992). In 2015, Smollett portrayed musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox drama series ''Empire'', a ...

who was criminally convicted for faking a hate crime as well as Justin Timberlake after a "wardrobe malfunction" at Timberlake's Super Bowl XXXVIII performance with Janet Jackson in February 2004. As of 2009, nine-tenths of his clients were not celebrities.

Wikipedia editing for clients

In June 2015, Sunshine admitted his firm had employed paid editors to edit clients Wikipedia pages to remove negative material about them, violating the Wikipedia updated terms of service. Sunshine Sachs said its employees failed to make public their relationship with the firm when making edits, and a key employee was unaware of Wikipedia's updated policies on paid editing. All employees engaged in editing Wikipedia now make appropriate disclosures, Sunshine said. Celebrities whose Wikipedia articles were edited by Sunshine Sachs include

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...

Mia Farrow Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequent ...

and Sarah Brightman. It was unclear if the celebrities themselves were aware of the edits. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' said an email to clients stated that "Sunshine Sachs has a number of experienced editors on staff that have established profiles on Wikipedia," and that "the changes we make to existing pages are rarely challenged." Sunshine said that he believed that his firm's edits to Wikipedia prior to June 2014, when the policy was changed, abided by Wikipedia policy.

Personal life

He is married to Nancy Hollander and they have two children. His son, Jason Hollander Sunshine, a Columbia-trained lawyer, is married to Samantha Helen London, a

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

graduate whose father, Barry London, served as vice chairman and president of Paramount Pictures's motion pictures group.

References

External links

Sunshine Sachs website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sunshine, Ken Cornell University alumni Living people People from Long Island American public relations people Conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia Place of birth missing (living people) 1948 births