Principals at new communications firm have deep Denver history
By Cathy Proctor, Denver Business Journal
January 12, 2016
Two long-time members of Denver’s public relations community, Steven Silvers and Paul Jacobson, have joined forces to launch a new firm called Silvers Jacobson LLC.
The Lakewood-based firm’s aim is to help companies big and small “prepare for and address the increasingly complex challenges of business growth and crisis situations.”
The two principals each bring more than 30 years of experience in corporate affairs, journalism, public relations, government and politics.
Silvers most recently spent 15 months as a senior advisor for corporate communications and spokesman at Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL), one of Colorado’s biggest oil and natural gas producers. He was laid off in November 2015 as part of a cut of 180 jobs at the Houston-based company, including 70 in Colorado.
The two connected several years ago, when Jacobson was communications director for Evergreen Energy — a Denver clean coal energy company that filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in 2012. Silvers worked with Evergreen as a principal at consulting firm GBSM.
Silvers in the 1990s worked with Denver Mayor Wellington Webb’s team after national media labeled the under-construction Denver International Airport “the biggest public works boondoggle in U.S. history.” Since then he’s helped a wide range of clients including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Vail Resorts, Financial Planning Association, Ensign Drilling, New Mexico State University, CH2M Hill, Nextel, EAS and many others, several times serving as media spokesperson.
An Army veteran and former journalist, Silvers has also held communications and public relations management positions at the Pentagon, with a Fortune 500 company and two of the world’s largest PR agencies.
Jacobson’s career began on Capitol Hill where he served as press secretary to three Republican U.S. Senators, two of them majority leaders: Sen. Warren Rudman, NH, Sen Bob Dole Kan. and Sen. Bill Frist, MD, Tenn. Before co-founding Silvers & Jacobson, he was vice president of corporate communications at Centrus Energy Corp., a $1 billion U.S. supplier of enriched uranium fuel for nuclear power plants.
Jacobson also has directed communications as a member of the executive team that assumed control of scandal-ridden Adelphia Communications Corp., and held top corporate communications posts for the cable TV programmer Starz Encore Group (now STARZ) and Ascent Entertainment Group when that company built Denver’s Pepsi Center, brought professional hockey to the city and produced major theatrical motion pictures.
“The value is our combined experience in helping clients navigate through increasingly complex business environments that are more transparent, disruptive and contentious than ever before,” Silvers said.
Cathy Proctor covers energy, the environment and transportation for the Denver Business Journal and edits the weekly "Energy Inc." newsletter. Phone: 303-803-9233.