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Auto Analyst Signs With PR Firm Fleishman-Hillard

10 July 2000

Cole Forms Partnership With Fleishman-Hillard

    CHICAGO - One of the automotive industry's leading consultants has joined 
the nation's largest PR firm in a strategic partnership that will bring 
reputation management counsel and services to auto manufacturers and suppliers.

    Dr. David E. Cole, director of the Office for the Study of Automotive
Transportation at the University of Michigan Transportation Research
Institute, formed an alliance with Fleishman-Hillard, the PR industry's
top-ranked firm for quality reputation.

    "Having worked in past years with Dave on programs for automakers
including General Motors and Ford, and suppliers such as ASC and Solutia, I
know the respect he commands in auto industry circles, and I am delighted that
FH clients now will have the benefit of his insight," said Robert McEwen,
senior vice president, partner, and general manager of the FH office in
Chicago.

    Cole organizes and hosts the University of Michigan Management Briefing
Seminars -- the annual research, analysis and communications summit for auto
industry leaders in Traverse City.  Now more than ever, Cole said, effective
communication is critically important to auto manufacturers and suppliers as
they meet the tough challenges of supply chain management, e-commerce,
industry consolidation, recruitment and retention of employees, and
globalization.

    "I chose to align myself with Fleishman-Hillard because FH among all
public relations agencies understands how best to apply the principles of
reputation management to the auto industry," Cole said.  "I worked closely
with Bob McEwen when he was in Detroit and know from previous experience that
he and his team will offer the highest caliber strategic thinking and the most
solid execution of tactical programs."

    Cole received his B.S.M.E., M.S.E., and Ph.D. from the University of
Michigan.  His technical and policy consulting experience includes a wide
variety of assignments for industry, labor and government.  He has researched
and reported extensively on vehicle and engine design, the restructuring of
the North American auto industry, and trends in globalization, technology,
market factors, and human resource requirements.

    He sits on the board of four automotive supplier companies, as well as the
Automotive Hall of Fame and the Original Equipment Suppliers Association.
Cole also served two terms on the board of directors of the Society of
Automotive Engineers.

    Fleishman-Hillard is the largest PR agency in the United States, with
1999 fee income of $213 million.  The firm was named "Agency of the Decade" by
Inside PR earlier this year and topped the Harris/Impulse Survey on quality
reputation of PR firms for the seventh straight year.