Torie Clarke

A Senior Advisor for Comcast Corporation and on-air commentator for ABC, Torie Clarke has advised some of the nation’s best-known executives. Best known to the public as the chief spokesperson for the Pentagon on 9/11 and the beginning of the Iraq war. Serving most recently as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Ms. Clarke was at her desk in the Pentagon’s outer ring when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001. From those first moments on 9/11, to embedding correspondents with military units in Operation Iraqi Freedom—a program she conceived, designed and ran— Ms. Clarke has played a leading role in shaping the public’s understanding of the war on terrorism. As press secretary for President George H.W. Bush’s 1992 re-election campaign, Ms. Clarke witnessed history from the vantage point of Air Force One and was broadly praised for her poise and professionalism during the campaign’s most difficult days. As Assistant U.S. Trade Representative during the first Bush Administration, Ms. Clarke worked extensively with journalists from around the world and ran a comprehensive private sector liaison program. Now a Senior Advisor for Comcast Corporation and on-air commentator for ABC, Torie Clarke has advised some of the nation’s best-known executives. She has been President of Bozell Eskew advertising, head of the Washington office of the internationally known public relations firm of Hill and Knowlton and Vice President of the National Cable Telecommunications Association, where she helped to develop the first television ratings system and the cable industry’s first on-time guarantee. In her timely book, Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game, Torie Clarke offers a complete guide to media relations in today’s transparent society. A former photographer for the Washington Star, Clarke is a graduate of George Washington University. She lives in suburban Washington with her husband, Brian Graham, and her three children.