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Thomas F. Burgess, Director of Congressional and Public Affairs

October 27, 2009

Thomas F. Burgess

Director of Congressional and Public Affairs

 

Mr. Burgess is the Director of Congressional and Public Affairs for the Department of State’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). Mr. Burgess is the chief legislative and media relations advisor to the Inspector General and other senior OIG officials.  e also serves as the liaison for the office’s congressional and public affairs activities. 

 

Prior to joining the OIG in March 2008, Mr. Burgess held a number of senior positions in government relations and communications. In 1999, he founded Blue Stone Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm that provided support and communication services to government agencies and the private sector. At Bluestone, Mr. Burgess served as a senior advisor to the staff of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he supported the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security during the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast. He also was a senior advisor to the United States Agency for International Development in both Poland and Jordan, where he provided guidance in crisis and financial market communications.

 

From 1998-1999, Mr. Burgess headed the Washington, D.C. corporate practice at Hill & Knowlton, an international communications consultancy firm. There, he managed a number of Fortune 500 company and government accounts. His clients included the Egyptian Capital Market Authority, the primary regulator of Egypt’s financial securities market, and Uplift International, a humanitarian relief organization that created health education programs supporting Indonesia and Vietnam.

 

Earlier, from 1996-1998, Mr. Burgess was the senior vice president and acting general manager at the Washington, D.C. office of Cohn & Wolfe, a global public relations firm. Before that, from1994-1996, Mr. Burgess was a vice president at international public relations agency Burson-Marsteller’s Washington office. As part of his responsibilities, Mr. Burgess, managed the C-17 transport aircraft grassroots recovery program that resulted in $24 billion in congressional support, and earned the firm a Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Award of Excellence.

 

Still earlier in his career, Mr. Burgess served as staff director for a four-term member of Congress who he helped draft and coordinate passage of the Clean Air Act. In 1990, Mr. Burgess was recalled to active duty by the Navy to serve in the Gulf War. He led the operations section of the Allied Information Bureau in Incirlik, Turkey for the Kurdish resettlement effort.

 

Mr. Burgess began his career as a journalist. From 1983-1990, he held positions at several newspapers including the San Diego Union, Defense News, Navy Times, and Independent Herald in Pineville, West Virginia. While at the San Diego Union, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Strategic Defense Initiative.