Martin Cooper is a public relations veteran with more than 30 years of experience implementing strategic communications programs for local, national, and international clients across dozens of industries. He has represented a broad range of tourism, restaurant, corporate, governmental and nonprofit clients, from entrepreneurial firms to Fortune 500 corporations, including: the Mattel Toys, Warner Bros. Television, Los Angeles Times, and the Sultan of Brunei.

Currently an affiliate of McCue Marketing Communications, Cooper has owned and operated his own firm (Cooper Communications) since 1982; previously, he was Senior Vice President-Marketing and Communications for Playboy Enterprises, Inc., where he reported to Hugh Hefner and was responsible for corporate and investor relations, marketing, advertising, merchandising, promotion, and public relations.  He also created and produced the Playboy Jazz Festival.

Cooper’s previous positions include Senior Vice President of Harshe-Rotman & Druck Public Relations (where he supervised major clients such as the Pasadena Tournament of Roses and the  Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its annual Academy Awards); Director of Marketing for Universal Studios’ Recreation Division; and Advertising and Promotion Manager of Disneyland.

As the recipient of numerous awards for public relations and communications—including his profession’s highest award, the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil—Cooper is widely recognized as a leader in the public relations profession.

In 2005, he was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the City’s Quality and Productivity Commission, and is now President of the Commission.  He is also currently Past Chairman of VICA and Chairman of its Board of Governors; a member of the Board of Directors of the Valley Economic Alliance; Founding President and a member of the Board of The Executives; Vice Chair-Marketing of the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley; a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; an Honorary Fellow of the Harry Truman Library Institute; and a member of the Director’s Council of UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Library.

Cooper teaches marketing, strategic planning and public relations at UCLA Extension and the Western Association of Chamber Executives’ Academy. He is a graduate of UCLA, where he was editor of the Daily Bruin, and has also studied at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the U.K.