Rick Black, Financial Communications Expert, Joins Dennard-Lascar Associates As Executive Vice President

HOUSTON, July 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Dennard-Lascar Associates, LLC, a leading provider of advanced investor relations counsel and innovative analytical services for clients since 1997, today announced that Rick Black has joined the firm as Executive Vice President and opened an office in Dallas where the firm already has a strong client presence.

Ken Dennard, Dennard-Lascar's CEO & Managing Partner, stated, "We are thrilled that Rick has elected to join our firm and bring his expertise and judgment in advising our clients on a wide range of business communications challenges and opportunities.  We see tremendous opportunities for Rick to build our practice and serve new clients across several industry sectors in which he has deep experience including healthcare, retail and technology, among others.  He is an experienced, well-rounded professional who will help us continue to grow our firm and serve our clients."

Black has more than 16 years of investor relations, media relations and crisis management experience.  He has served as a trusted advisor to senior management teams and Boards of Directors and has deep experience in creating and implementing targeted investor relations strategies, media relations campaigns and managing corporate crisis situations including: investor and media relations reputation campaigns; turnaround situations; shareholder activism and proxy contests; quarterly earnings announcements; investor days and communications efforts related to corporate litigation, labor disputes and disaster situations.  Black has a demonstrated record of developing and executing investor and public relations strategies in critical, time-sensitive situations across a wide range of industries and including Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 publicly traded corporations.  In addition, he frequently presents at industry conferences on topics related to investor relations and shareholder activism. He currently serves on the Board of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) Dallas Chapter.

Prior to Dennard-Lascar, Black was a senior vice president at H+K Strategies.  He served as a member of the H+K Strategies Corporate Partnerships practice group in Dallas where he oversaw the corporate communications and media relations strategy, and contributed to the investor relations activities, for a leading Fortune 300 healthcare client.  Additional H+K Strategies client work included investor, media and crisis communications support for an S&P 500 medical device company, as well as financial communications consultation for financial services, retail and energy industry clients.  Prior to that he was the director of investor relations and head of corporate communications at Luby's, Inc. There he developed, executed and managed all aspects of investor relations, media relations and shareholder communications efforts including the company's successful defense of a proxy contest against an activist hedge fund takeover attempt in 2008.  Prior to that Black was the investor relations manager at BMC Software, Inc.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations with a minor in Marketing from Texas Tech University.

Additionally, Dennard-Lascar announced today that Jenny Zhou joined the firm in April 2013 as an Associate in its Houston office.  Most recently, Zhou worked at the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank, where she contributed to achieving licensure from the United States Food and Drug Administration of the stem cell product, DUCORD.  Zhou holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and dual minors in Biology and Chemistry from Duke University.  She is fluent in Chinese, and in her spare time, is training for her second half marathon.

Also, Stephanie Smith joined Dennard-Lascar in July 2013 as an Associate in the Houston office.  Previously, she worked as a Business Analyst for patient plastic products at Medline Industries, the largest privately-held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies in the US.  She provided financial analysis, bidding strategy, and targeted marketing to grow the line of plastic utensils manufactured in-house. Prior to that, Smith researched and co-authored a publication on novel treatment for age-related macular disease while at the Duke University Eye Center.  She has an MS in Medical Physiology and Biophysics from Georgetown University and holds a BS in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Duke University.

About Dennard-Lascar Associates

Originally founded in 1997 as Easterly Investor Relations by Ken Dennard and the late Gary Easterly, Dennard-Lascar Associates, headquartered in Houston with offices in San Antonio and Dallas, provides a full range of investor relations and analytical services, financial media and crisis communications services, and strategic counsel to enhance the visibility, transparency and credibility of its clients within the investment and business communities. 

Dennard-Lascar Associates has represented over 140 clients since its inception.  The firm currently represents over 30 publicly-traded companies totaling more than $39 billion in cumulative revenues and over $31 billion in cumulative market capitalization.  For more information regarding its clients or services, please visit the website at www.DennardLascar.com or call (713) 529-6600.

SOURCE Dennard-Lascar Associates