Peter Schechter
Partner

Peter Schechter is an international communications consultant with over twenty years of experience.  In 1992, Schechter founded Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates (CLS) with two partners. Within a few years it had become one of Washington’s premier strategic communications consulting firms. The Wall Street Journal has referred to CLS as “Washington’s bare-knuckled communications firm.”

Fluent in six languages, Mr. Schechter works at the intersection of international business and politics. His clients’ diversity – ranging from renowned European wine regions seeking to protect their geographic origins, to a large credit card company, a major oil and gas company, a leading African-American scholarship fund as well as a major Latin American investment group – speaks to the success of his advice. 

Mr. Schechter has advised major corporations such as Hyundai and General Electric on trade disputes.  He has acted as principal advisor for the United Nations Foundation, the World Bank and the World Health Organization and has assisted countries such as Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, Spain, Peru, and Portugal in business and tourism promotion programs.  Mr. Schechter has helped governments implement communications to mobilize internal public support – he has been retained by the governments of Brazil, Georgia, Serbia and Nicaragua on issues such as economic reform, land reform, environmental preservation efforts and the rights of indigenous peoples.

Beyond corporate and public policy work, Mr. Schechter also served as the lead consultant on a number of elections worldwide.  This includes work for President Ernesto Zedillo in Mexico, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Brazil and Presidents Alvaro Uribe and Cesar Gaviria in Colombia. 

A graduate of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, he was previously deputy staff director for the House Subcommittee on International Development Institutions and Finance and worked at National Public Radio and the Inter-American Development Bank.  He is on the Board of Directors of a number of prominent Washington restaurants.  He published Point of Entry, his first novel with Harper Collins in January 2006.  His second novel will be published in March 2009.