"I have relied on Joe’s expertise and good thinking for years.  He is way better than a consultant.  Joe is a partner who shares our goals and brings a wealth of experience and smarts to accomplishing them.  The progress Minnesota is making on early education can be credited in no small part to Joe’s discipline, pragmatism, and adherence to communications fundamentals.”  

Ericca Maas

Executive Director, Close Gaps by 5

 

"Joe is a communications strategist and a hands-on guy who gets work done effectively and efficiently.  He listens well, digests research skillfully and challenges assumptions.  Joe sees the big picture with all its nuance and complexity and boils it down into plans, key messages and action steps that move change forward."

Carolyn C. Link
Executive Director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation

 

"Joe is one of those people who understands strategy, is an incredibly quick study on the issues and can get work done with the quality you need and expect.  He also has a unique blend of marketing, communications, public relations and crisis management, which means he can see all the angles of issues and can put a plan together that addresses them.  Finally, Joe makes the work interesting and fun!

Shannon Beaudin Klein
Vice President, Marketing and Communications, HealthPartrners

 

"Joe has worked with the State and Local Policy Program of the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs as a communications consultant on transportation polciy since 2001.  Joe has a unique talent to listen to everyone on a complex issue and come up with creative ways to communicate with what he calls the "grasstops" (policy leaders) and the "grassroots" (the public).  Joe responds quickly to requests and always provides practical and sound advice."

 Lee Munnich
Director, State and Local Policy Program, U of MN Humphrey School

 

"In the 15 years I've known him, I've worked with Joe, for Joe and in turn, have hired Joe. One of the great things about working around Joe is that he doesn't worry about convincing you he's one of the savviest public relations/reputation/communications professionals you'll ever meet.  He simply is. Joe is less focused on "spinning" (although he can do that too!) than in providing thoughtful, insightful strategies that will pass the public "smell test" and stand up under scrutiny. As an organization that is always in the public eye and where one misstep can quickly become national news, Joe is someone that I regularly turn to for help with our most sensitive issues."

Ted Johnson
Chief Marketing Officer, Minnesota Timberwolves

 

"The mission of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) requires us to weave together often complex evaluation results into public policy recommendations. Joe has an amazing ability to boil down evaluation findings into answers that are actually useful.  Often times, there is a tendency to get lost in all the technical details of a research study, but Joe uses that detailed information to create messages focused on what is big and real." 
 
Duane Benson
Executive Director, MN Early Learning Foundation
(Former state legislator and Executive Director of Minnesota Business Partnership) 

 

"Don't let that self-effacing, nice-guy personal fool you.  Joe Loveland isa first rate strategist and a driven competitor.  He's the rare outsider who will "get" your organization and its nuances quickly and accrurately while offering up fresh thinking that will challenge yours for the good.  He's the wise, diplomatic, high-integrity partner you want in your corner as you much as you'd not want him in the opposite one.  And yep, a heckuva a nice guy."

Gary Hornseth
Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications
HealthPartners

  

 "Joe Loveland is a great asset to our team. He combines broad communications skills with deep content knowledge and the ability to learn new areas quickly.  Joe is honest, strategic, hard working, and good humored. He does it all--media advocacy, advertising agency management, strategic planning, and more--and he does it all exceptionally well."

Marc Manley, M.D.
Senior V.P., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of MN

 

"Joe is one of the best communication professionals I've had the pleasure to work with. His ability to remain calm and focused during a crisis is something I've not seen before. Joe's razor-sharp strategic sense and vast knowledge-base make him a great communicator. More importantly, his easy-going personality makes him someone you really want to work with."

Michele Vig
Director of Customer Engagement, Caribou Coffee

 

"Joe has an incredible amount of experience in successful policy and communications. He’s skilled at identifying and implementing solutions. In the 20 years I’ve known and worked with Joe, he has always provided counsel in a way that builds trust and consensus within groups and individuals. He’s an excellent person to have on your team." 
 
Andrea Mowery
Vice President, ClearWay Minnesota

 

"Joe provided the leadership and expertise we needed to transform a set of patient safety best practices into actionable tools for patients to use at every transition of care.  The Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety received a grant to improve safety for patients at transitions of care. Joe's leadership was key to this project's success.  Joe had an amazing grasp of our content while still providing that critical "outside" perspective and communications expertise."

Marie Dotseth
Executive Director, Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS)

 

"We hired Joe to test and develop new, resonant messages and message delivery methods to increase the number of the people we serve who commit at tax time to save a portion of their tax refund to ultimately become more economically secure.  With Joe’s leadership, we got amazing results and a vision to move us to the next level.  Joe is incredibly smart, strategic, insightful, patient, quick, and extraordinarily responsive.  He listens, learns, probes, and is able to succinctly produce the results needed.  Joe is also very thoughtful, has great instincts, and figures out how to reach and hear people from many walks of life.  In a word, Joe rocks."

Tracy Fischman
Executive Director, AccountAbility Minnesota

"We engaged Joe on a project that was one of the largest I had ever worked on, with an incredible number of variables.  Joe is great at cutting through complexity in search of the essential core, and then building stories to convey the core messages in a meaningful way.  He also provided innovative, non-cutsey communications tactics – a key to engaging health professionals.  I value Joe’s talent, creativity, efficiency, and responsiveness."

 Barbara Balik, RN, Ed.D.,

Exec. V.P. AllinaHospitals & Clinics

 

 

"We hired Joe at a time when our communications products were becoming stale, and our key messages weren't well defined, let along reaching all the right people.  Joe did a thorough analysis and crafted a communications plan that really hit the mark for us.  The results demonstrate Joe's success:  all our brand indicators improved, but the one that we like best is that your revised newsletter is read by nearly 70 percent of survey respondents, versus 26 percent who read our previous newsletter.  Joe helped us convey the value we provide to our stakeholders -- a huge need for us as a public institution and a cluttered marketplace of ideas.  We are thrilled with the results of our new strategy, and it is always a pleasure to work Joe as an individual and as a trusted adviser."

 

Gina Baas

Associate Director

University of Minnesota, Center for Transportation Studies (CTS)

 

 

"Joe took time to really listen to our needs, to learn about our agency, and to create a participatory process involving all levels. He is creative, flexible, and patient. Joe has a unique ability to take what he hears from many sources and turn it into something innovative and succinct. His ability to craft our message has helped to catapult our agency forward to new and exciting heights."

Amelia Franck Meyer
Executive Director, Anu Family Services

 

 

"Joe led a multi-company team of marketing professionals to develop one of the most interesting and effective campaigns I've ever been associated with in my 24 years in the business.  He challenged us to develop work that was cutting edge and helped protect that work through the political environment.  The results?  The highly innovative "Target Market" campaign has reduced youth smoking by 25%."

Don Kvam
Chief Growth Officer,Campbell Mithun Advertising

 

"In both public sector and corporate settings, Joe's strategic sense and communications skills have been remarkably effective.  He is one of the most creative communications professionals I know, and he's been an invaluable counselor to me in my leadership roles."

Jan K. Malcolm
CEO, Courage Center
(Former Minnesota Commissioner of Health) 

 

"Joe has a gift for taking complex issues and making them understandable and meaningful to the general public.  Whether you are in the public or the private sector, that's what effective communications is all about.  During my (24-year) tenure in Congress, Joe has been one of the staff members whose talents I value most.

Thomas A. Daschle
Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader

 

"We have worked with Joe on two projects now. In both cases, Joe's primary role was to manage our agency on behalf of our mutual client.   Effective work comes from leveraging the  talent and experience of both the client and agency teams.  Agencies should be actively managed.   However,  there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.  Joe's way is the right way.  His strategic insight, his management style and his understanding and appreciation for effective, relevant creative makes him an ideal partner for both the client and the agency.  Joe makes us all look good."

Patrick Hunt
Founder, Hunt Adkins Advertising

 

"Over the years I've worked with dozens of very talented PR professionals on high profile issues.  Some can write and some can spin, but Joe does it all.  He has that rare ability to see three moves ahead on the communciations chess board.  Having someone like that helping to guide decisions can prevent irreversible reputation damage.  When you consider what your reputation or brand is worth, a guy like Joe is worth his weight in gold."

Eric Johnson
CEO, Avenet Web Solutions

 

"At this stage in our development, our small, fast growing company isn’t in a position to have a full-service, multi-discipline marketing department.  But because Joe has experience in many different areas of marketing, he has served as our virtual marketing department.  He’s generated millions of dollars worth of news stories, helped with the website, developed our sales video and collateral materials and helped us analyze marketing opportunities.  For this kind of marketing production, other companies pay millions of dollars to an internal marketing department and outside agencies.  Working with Joe has been a very productive partnership."

Dr. Ken Rosenblum
CEO, Mendota HealthCare Inc.

 

"We engaged Joe on a very promising initiative that had inexplicably been languishing.  He spent two days on campus, interviewed key stakeholders and produced a concise and compelling written plan.  His recommendations were central to a successful launch of the project within six months.  Joe brought great insight, perspective and strategic thought to the process."

Steve Erpenbach
President & CEO, South Dakota State University Foundation

 

"Winning Minnesota's tobacco lawsuit took more than just good lawyering; it took outstanding efforts to mobilize the public and key decisionmakers to do the right thing.  That kind of energy is just what Joe Loveland provided, ensuring that the Minnesota tobacco lawsuit succeeded not only in the courtroom, but in the court of public opinion.  It was Joe's talented leadership that kept the Minnesota effort moving forward, even when other states wanted to settle on the cheap.  Working in the background, Joe developed a communications plan and then worked to hammer it home day after day in the local and national media."

Hubert H. Humphrey III
Former Minnesota Attorney General

 

"While communications is usually a highly segmented profession, Joe is distinguished by his flexibility. He has done everything from directing multi-million dollar ad campaigns to negotiating major news media crises to writing internal communications plans, and he has done it all exceptionally well.  He is an unparalled strategic thinker whose wide scope of multidisciplinary skills bring an extremely strong asset to any project."

Sarah Stoesz
CEO, Planned Parenthood MN/SD  

 

"Joe worked on a controversial and difficult PR campaign for me.  He was invaluable not only for his writing skills, but especially for his analytical abilities and creativity in developing our message.  I am eager to use him on our next project."

David Frank
Vice President, Abbott Northwestern Hospital

 

"Joe Loveland has the best knowledge of how public information moves public policy than any person working in this area in the nation today.  As a former staff member to a Governor and a Member of Congress, I am continually impressed by his expertise that drives organizations to formulate programs to provide the public relations products that implement successul public policy."

Barbara Rohde
Senior Policy Analyst, U. of MN, Inst. of Public Affairs

 

"Joe's calm, precise, thoughtful approach to communication strategy has been a godsend to our neophyte company in one of the most scrutinized, tumultuous business sectors.  Feedback from policymakers, patients and the press corps has all been very positive.  He has saved me from myself on many occassions, and is anything but a yes-man.  Our team thinks the world of Joe, professionally and personally."

Kyle Kingsley, M.D.
CEO, Minnesota Medical Solutions/Vireo Health