Walker Webcast: Laurel Strategies’ Alan Fleischmann Defines the CEO-Statesman

With a background that included serving as chief of staff to Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and as staff director of the U.S. Committee on Foreign Affairs, Alan Fleishmann at one time considered making a run for political office himself. Instead, though, “a part of me realized I could do more helping others lead,” Fleishmann said on this week’s Walker Webcast. 

Fleischmann has carried out this mission as principal of Albright Stonebridge Group and, more recently, as founder, chairman and CEO of business advisory and strategic communications firm Laurel Strategies. Across a platform of services that range from business strategy to cybersecurity protocols, “we’ll be the ones coming in and asking the right questions” rather than presenting ready-made solutions, Fleischmann told Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker.  

When Fleischmann left Albright to launch his new venture in 2014, eight CEO clients said they’d make the move with him—despite Laurel Strategies starting out with no real infrastructure or staffing. Asked why clients would work with him, Fleischmann cited his all-in commitment, his team’s standard of keeping promises and the sense that the team cares about his clients. 

However, Walker—who has become known for asking the right questions himself—dug a little deeper to get at the essence of the approach taken by Fleischmann and the Laurel Strategies team. The firm’s real value proposition, Fleishmann said: “We will know you, and we will help you know yourself better.” 

Fleischmann, who sees a mixture of confidence and humility in successful CEOs, discussed a pair of corporate leaders who have distinguished themselves. One was Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, a 25-year, up-through-the-ranks scientist and executive who took the reins a little more than a year before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Yet, soon after the pandemic set in, he committed the company and its partners to developing a vaccine within the year. 

The other was outgoing Disney honcho Bob Iger. Along with emphasizing human interaction, Iger has become known over a 17-year-run for his skill in establishing trust: the kind of trust that persuaded Steve Jobs and George Lucas that their enterprises—Jobs’ Pixar and Lucas’ Lucasfilm Ltd.—would be in good hands under Disney ownership. “He is truly a CEO-statesman,” Fleischmann said. 

In the world of 2021, corporate statesmanship may mean responsibility, to include both philanthropy and putting ESG considerations into product lines. “Main Street isn’t just the everyday customer, but also a very demanding customer,” said Fleischmann. Wall Street and Main Street need to intersect, he added. 

On-demand replays of the Dec. 22 webcast are available by clicking here and through Walker & Dunlop’s Driven by Insight podcast series.