Tom Griscom
Thomas Cecil Griscom (born 1949) served as Director of White House Communications under President Ronald Reagan, was a top aide and adviser for a decade to U.S. Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, and was the executive editor and publisher of the Chattanooga Times Free Press from October 1999 to June 30, 2010. Griscom served in the 1990s as the executive vice president for external relations for the RJ Reynolds Tobacco company, as an employee of Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd; and as a public relations consultant with Powell-Tate. In December 1998, Fortune magazine's "The Power of 25: the influence merchants" named Griscom, along with other ex-White House staff, ex-politicians and sons-of-politicians, as a key lobbyist in Washington. Griscom is a graduate of Brainerd High School and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Life and career Politics In 1978 Griscom joined the staff of Senator Baker and served as press secretary. In 1985-86, after Baker's retirement from the Senate, Griscom served as the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and was charged with the task of overseeing the re-election efforts of the Republican majority in the Senate. He later became part of the Reagan administration in 1987, while Baker