Edmund Walsh

Specialty: Writer.

Fields Most Served: Financial services, philanthropy and non-profits.

Interview:

Q: How do you describe what you do at WHWG?
Walsh: I write speeches and op-eds for private-sector clients.

Q: What is most challenging about your work for your clients?
Walsh: Maintaining freshness and creativity, even when a client may be asking for multiple pieces of work on the same subject.

Q: What is most satisfying about your work for your clients?
Walsh: I enjoy learning about clients – the work they do and the challenges they face – and developing relationships with the people I work with. I usually find myself rooting for clients in other aspects of their business after I’ve been working with them a few weeks.

Q: What kinds of clients do you have and what are they looking for from you?
Walsh: Most of my clients have been in the financial services industry and the world of philanthropy. They usually want help bringing to a wider audience issues about which they’re passionate and very knowledgeable.

Q: Do you have a personal measure of success with your clients? What is it?
Walsh: It sounds obvious, but I want clients to be happy with the product we put together. If they think the project is a success, I think it’s a success.

Bio: Ed Walsh is among the nation’s most versatile and sophisticated speechwriters, having demonstrated equal facility with the subtleties of articulating global financial policy and the sensitivities of speaking to oppression of women in developing countries.

From Fall 2006 through 2007, he served as a speechwriter for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Working with Secretary Paulson, he produced major policy statements on U.S. and international capital markets and international trade, as well as Congressional testimony on the federal budget and the U.S. economic relationship with China.

In 2005 and 2006, Walsh served as First Lady Laura Bush’s speechwriter. He drafted speeches that concerned giving women, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, greater economic, political, and educational opportunities; and on Mrs. Bush’s signature domestic initiative, called Helping America’s Youth.

In 2004, Walsh was Head Writer for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. He wrote speeches and op-eds for senior campaign leaders and surrogates, including members of the president’s Cabinet and the Bush family, and edited the 2004 Republican Party platform.

In the first Bush term, Walsh served as a speechwriter to the president, writing on a range of domestic policy topics, including health care, education, and environmental policy.

Walsh has also demonstrated ability in dealing directly with the media under extreme pressure. During the summer of 2006, he served as public affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. He was responsible for working with the State and Defense Departments to facilitate press coverage as part of the Embassy’s Global Outreach Team.

Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Walsh worked at The Weekly Standard magazine and at a division of Dow Jones Newswires. Originally from Pennsylvania, he graduated from American University in Washington, DC.