NEW YORK—Burson-Marsteller has appointed Steve Lombardo as chair of the US public affairs and crisis practice. Lombardo comes with a background in electoral politics and has led message development and integrated communications campaigns for dozens of leading global companies, trade associations and industry groups.

Lombardo will be based in the firm’s Washington, DC, office and will take the lead on driving Burson-Marsteller’s growth in the public affairs, issues management and crisis space. He will report to US chief executive Dave DenHerder. 

Most recently, Lombardo served as the global CEO of StrategyOne, the insights and analytics division of Daniel J Edelman, where he helped develop message strategy for dozens of clients including Pfizer, Kraft Foods and Disney.  

Prior to re-joining Edelman and StrategyOne, Lombardo was the founder of Lombardo Consulting Group, a full-service public opinion research firm and was the founder and president of StrategyOne, and also served as vice chairman of Edelman’s advertising group, Blue Worldwide. Earlier in his career, he worked on the presidential campaign for President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and contributed to communications activities for the 1996 and 2000 GOP conventions. In 2008, he served as a senior research and communications advisor to the Romney for President campaign.