James K. Gentry, Ph.D., is an award-winning professor and former dean at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas.
Gentry is nationally known for his ability to turn complicated financial and accounting information into understandable language for corporate communicators and journalists. Over the past 25 years, he has taught thousands of communicators and journalists how to understand the language of business.
This spring he is teaming with two national organizations to present workshops to improve the financial knowledge of corporate communicators and business reporters.
In summer 2003 he received the Barry Sherman Teaching Award from the Media Management and Economics Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The award recognizes excellence and innovation in teaching media management and economics.
He’s an all-star speaker for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and has been invited to present a workshop on understanding financial statements at the IABC World Conference in June.
In March and April, he will team with IABC to present two two-day workshops on “Communicating Company Results to Build Trust and Reputation.” The programs will be in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. For more information, visit the IAABC website at www.iabc.com/fc.
He also is teaming with the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism to present programs on “Rethinking Financial Statements in the Post-Crash Environment” in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and Milwaukee. For more information, visit businessjournalism.org.
“The world of corporate financial communication has changed forever — and nobody understands that better than Jimmy Gentry. His one-day program at our company cut through the complexity of accounting and reporting requirements without ‘dumbing down’ these important topics. In an easy-going session filled with information and insight, our team members felt free to ask any question, large or small. They ended the day with greater knowledge and confidence to ask the right questions and communicate more effectively with employees, business leaders, customers and reporters. Even our most experienced financial communicators gained from the experience.”
Shelly London
Vice President and Chief Communications Officer
American Standard Companies
Piscataway, New Jersey
“If you want to be prepared to handle high-impact, high-profile communications in today’s unforgiving environment, you have to be able to understand and use complex financial information. You have to not only understand what it means to your company, but also how it can be interpreted (or misinterpreted) by reporters, analysts and customers. This is where Dr. Gentry makes a real difference to communicators: He teaches you how to speak the financial language of business so that you can better promote, protect and defend your companies and your clients. And he explains it in easy-to-understand language.”
Jeff Shafer
Vice President
Fleishman-Hillard Kansas City
