meet our team

  • Aileen pincus

    President

  • David Burnett

    Vice President/Senior Trainer

  • James Adams

    Sr. VP, SE Region

  • Gina London

    Managing Director, Europe

  • Tom Squitieri

    Senior Trainer

Aileen Pincus – President

Aileen Pincus launched The Pincus Group after more than two decades of communications experience. Aileen worked as a local and national television reporter in Portland, Tampa and Washington DC, before leading communications for a U.S. Senator, and then joining a global public relations firm as senior executive trainer. She now leads training and strategy for the firm’s clients around the country.

Aileen’s communications experience spans the fields of journalism, politics and public relations. She has trained senior executives from around the country for one of the nation’s largest public relations firms, Golin/Harris International. Her work in strategy and communications training for Fortune 500 companies included counsel for the pharmaceutical, medical research, banking, automotive, legal, chemical, engineering and technology industries, as well as for political and non-profit groups.

Prior to training and consulting in private industry, Aileen worked as a senior staff advisor for a U.S. Senator. As Communications Director, she coordinated all local, regional and national media efforts, and served as the Senator’s chief spokeswoman. Aileen comes to media and communications consulting after an extensive career in journalism. Aileen reported for local and national television news markets around the country for nearly two decades. She was an award-winning reporter for the NBC affiliate in Portland, Oregon, the ABC affiliate in Tampa, for the Fox affiliate in Washington DC and for CNN, where she reported on national stories for CNN affiliates around the country.

As President and founding partner of The Pincus Group, Aileen now directs effective media strategies and communication training for clients around the country. She writes and speaks on effective communication for national organizations and forums. Aileen is a graduate of California State University at Northridge, School of Journalism. She is listed in Who’s Who as one of the nation’s most influential people.

David Burnett- Vice President/Senior Trainer

David Burnett – Vice President/Senior Trainer
David Burnett joined The Pincus Group after more than two decades as a successful broadcast news reporter and anchor in Washington DC before becoming Managing Director of the Washington Office of Hill and Knowlton. David trains senior executives in industry, association and trade groups and is a sought-after public speaker.
David anchored and reported for WTTG-TV in Washington DC for 13 years and earned six reporting awards including the prestigious Emmy. He also developed and coordinated the reporter-training program at WTTG for aspiring journalists. David is past president of the Washington DC chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. David was Managing Director at the Washington office of Hill and Knowlton public relations, where he trained and counseled many top executives in media and communication skills. David has trained numerous senior executives in industry, association and trade groups, and is a sought-after speaker on communication issues at forums and education seminars.
 
David was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned a B.S. degree in Communications from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where he also played college football and served as a member of the University’s Human Relations Committee. David is an accomplished trainer and is also dedicated to humanitarian and charitable causes. He lives in Washington DC and is the proud father of two children, David Jr. and Janet.

James Adams - Sr. VP, SE Region

James has served on the staffs of major broadcast and cable outlets for more than 20 years, including FOX TV, NBC, and CNBC. James joins TPG after a distinguished career as Emmy-award winning former Washington DC news anchor and member of the White House and Congressional Press Corps. James has trained both private and federal clients in preparing for media interaction, including the US Post Office, government representatives from DC to Saudi Arabia, and a number of interest groups.
He specializes in issue messaging and media training, particularly for those interacting with Capitol Hill in seeking change. James earned his B.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in Communications from American University in Washington DC. James divides his time between Washington DC and North Carolina.

Gina London - Managing Director, Europe

Gina London heads TPG’s operations in Europe and the mid-east, after extensive international media and political consulting experience. Gina is an Emmy Award winning, veteran CNN correspondent and anchor, with more than a decade of television, radio, internet and print experience. She has lived and worked in the US and in countries ranging from Egypt to Macedonia, Jordan to the U.A.E. She has provided training for Iraqi political candidates, Egyptian political party leaders, and Macedonian members of parliament. Gina has also worked on Capitol Hill as both a congressional aide and strategist for a Senatorial Campaign Committee.
 
In the United States, Gina has provided communications, media or campaign strategies for a wide-range of influential clients including financial institutions like Wachovia/Wells Fargo; world-wide engineering firms like Parsons Brinckerhoff; and Fortune 500 giants such as WalMart. Gina also played an integral role in the passage of the nation’s largest expansion of mass transit, the $6.2 billion Denver area program known as FasTracks. She has been a featured presenter at several Meeting Professionals International (MPI) conferences. Gina earned her B.A. from Indiana University with studies in journalism and political science. She lives in Ireland with her husband Scotty and daughter Lulu.

Tom Squitieri - Senior Trainer

Tom joined The Pincus Group as a veteran journalist and foreign correspondent, having spent the last 16 of his 34-year journalism career as an award-winning reporter for USA Today.
 
Tom covered national politics and foreign affairs, including reporting from Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East and Afghanistan. He has also taught journalism ethics and public affairs at Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania.
Tom’s executive coaching talents and proactive media and crisis communication strategies, provide a unique resource for TPG clients in both the non-profit and for profit sectors.

 

Additional Coaching Resources

Dave Griffiths – Senior Trainer

Dave Griffiths has a distinguished career spanning more than three decades as a print journalist, educator, and writing and media relations instructor. He has trained a variety of clients, from federal employees, to small business, insurance industry, and education executives.

With The Pincus Group, Dave trains corporate, non-profit and government clients in media relations and crisis communications, using his extensive expertise in national and local print media. Before joining The Pincus Group, Dave was a newspaper editor in Maine, following six years on the journalism faculty at Penn State University. He was also marketing consultant and founding managing editor of the Veterans Business Journal, a magazine.

Dave’s journalism career began as a reporter for the Kansas City Star, and spanned two decades in Washington DC, where he covered the Pentagon and the defense industry for three publications — Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, the newsletter Defense Week and Business Week magazine. Dave graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in English, earning his MA in journalism at the University of Missouri. He is also an Army veteran, serving in Germany and Vietnam. He lives with his wife Catherine and their two sons, William and Richard.

Ellen Kandell – Senior Trainer

Ellen brings over 25 years of experience as a litigator, mediator and college professor to her work with The Pincus Group. Ellen works on negotiation skills training, conflict management, and executive communications skills training, conducting skills training workshops for the National Science Foundation,Montgomery College’s Workforce Development and Continuing Education division and many others. She is an adjunct professor at Catholic University and University of Maryland. Ellen trained as a mediator at Harvard Law School and has mediated over 300 cases. She is a past co-chair of the Montgomery County Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section and a founding member of the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County.

Frequently Asked Questions

Each session is customized, but all involve interactive practice with our seasoned coaches. Our clients learn by doing, enhancing skills with videotaped exercises specifically designed for them. We match the right coach to the right client and design agendas in half-day, full-day or two-day sessions to produce targeted and concrete results. Remote or in person sessions now available.

We’ve successfully trained an incredible array of individuals, teams, and groups. We’ve coached sales teams, academics, researchers, scientists, diplomats and public figures at every executive level, with a special expertise working with C-suite executives. We’ve worked with startups and Blue Chip firms, public and private sector clients, local community groups to national organizations, in small cities to international offices. We help a wide variety of those in the public eye as well as those engaged in B2B and internal communications. In short, we excel at training anyone whose success depends on communicating with power.

We offer half-day (in Washington DC), full-day and two-day sessions. Some clients train with us in preparation for a single event, while others come back repeatedly for ongoing work as new initiatives arise. We’re proud that so many of our clients come back to us over the years as their needs change.

Yes! We teach you a methodology for preparing for speeches, presentations, testimony, or media interviews, walk you through best practices, and then expertly guide your individual performance through rounds of videotaped, realistic practices. Ask us about our full year of free follow-up consultations designed to help you stay on track with new skills. And visit our client page for more on what our existing clients have to say about their results.

From Washington DC to Washington State, from Denver to Dubai, our trainers are on the go wherever our clients need us. Virtual sessions are now also available, or you can train with us at a location convenient to you. Our new international office serving Western Europe is now open.

View All