The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) has announced that Tom Lauria has joined the association as vice president for communications. His duties include media relations; the editorial content for IBWA's website, IBWA'S Bottled Water Reporter bimonthly magazine and the weekly e-mail news alert “Splash”; and development of IBWA's public affairs outreach programs.
"In a Washington D.C.-based career spanning 25 years, Tom Lauria has successfully managed some challenging media relations and public affairs issues," said IBWA President Joe Doss. "He's in the right place at the right time."
Before joining IBWA, Lauria served as a communications contractor with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Federal Detention Trustee. Lauria was retained by the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan to initiate and supervise its U.S. media relations efforts, including President Hamid Karzai's first U.S. visit in January 2002.
As a spokesperson for The Tobacco Institute, he conducted two national media tours to introduce the "We Card" retail signage program in all 50 states to improve enforcement of minimum-age sales laws. He represented the Embassy of Cyprus as it sought entry to the European Union. Early in his career, Lauria was the promotion and research manager of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and director of communications for a division of MCI Telecommunications.
Tom Lauria holds a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Detroit and an M.F.A in Media Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Source: IBWA
