H. Zane Robbins

Before becoming a full-time freelance author, I was executive director of Arthur Andersen’s Global Markets Program. Earlier, I had been president and chief executive officer of the public relations firm of Beveridge and Robbins Inc. and of Financial Advertising of Illinois. Before that I was vice president of a major international public relations firm, a communications manager at General Electric Company and a newspaper reporter in North Carolina, Atlanta and Tokyo.

Previously published books include "A Tradition of Excellence," the history of Chi Psi fraternity at the University of North Carolina, and "A Vision of Grandeur," the history of the first 75 years of Arthur Andersen.

I am a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and did graduate work at Emory University, Atlanta.

I have long been active in community activities and have served on the boards of Child and Family Services of Chicago, Roycemore School, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Northeast Illinois Council of Boy Scouts of America. I am a current member of the boards of the North Shore Environmental Association Ladd Arboretum and North Suburban Youth Foundation, which I served as prsident for three years. I also am a member of the Board of Visitors of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

I served as general chairman of the Chicago Children’s Classic, a Ladies PGA golf tournament, and of the Childhood Cancer Classic, a golf fundraiser to benefit Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. I chaired the communications committee of the first national Honor America Day event in Washington, DC, served on the committee that designed the journalism curriculum of Harper College and chaired the Fund Development Committee of the Chicago Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church. I serve currently as a consultant for the Executive Service Corps, which serves nonprofit and governmental entities.

In 1994, I was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame. My awards include the Silver Anvil of the Public Relations Society of America, a Freedoms Foundation Award, the Eagle Award of the Chicago Financial Advertisers Association, six Golden Trumpets of the Publicity Club of Chicago, eight “Oscars of Industry” presented by Financial World magazine for excellence in corporate annual reports, and awards from the National Association of Security Dealers and the Financial Analysts Federation for outstanding corporate financial communications.

In my post-retirement career, I’ve returned to my roots: writing. I began writing for newspapers when I was 13 and worked steadily at that until graduation from college. It was writing –- sportswriting primarily -– that paid my way through college and earned me a job at the Atlanta Constitution. Then I got hungry and tired of using city buses as my only mode of transportation, so I took a public relations job with General Electric. Then came the army where I edited a post newspaper that was the first to receive the Department of Defense’s “E” [for excellence] award. In Japan, I served as administrative assistant to the Adjutant General of the United Nations Far East Command -– and worked evenings as the night managing editor of the country’s leading English-language newspaper. Back at GE, I edited the world’s largest-circulation industrial newspaper.

After that my career took a lucrative detour into public relations -– first as vice president of a major international public relations firm, later as the head of my own consulting firm and, finally, as communications director and ultimately as executive director of a high-profile international marketing program for what was then the world’s largest professional services firm.

Through all of this, I have never strayed very far from writing. It’s what I do best, and that’s my career from here on out.