Dan Tapper
Senior Director
✉ dtapper@ctpr.com
📞 (860) 573-4236
“Dan won’t rest until he can say, ‘Mission Accomplished.’”
Having worked on both sides of the Connecticut media as a daily news reporter and communications officer for several statewide elected officials, Dan has earned a reputation as a trusted advisor with deep knowledge of the news business and how best to manage issues of public importance. Possessing expertise in executive media coaching, message development, positive media relations campaigns and crisis communications management, Dan credits his early journalism days with helping him refine his writing skills and calmly manage tight, high-pressure deadlines.
Prior to coming to SLPR, Dan was Communications Director for two prominent Connecticut elected officials, and worked for several years as a press secretary in the Connecticut General Assembly. He spent the prior seven years as a daily reporter for the Hartford Courant and then the Journal Inquirer.
As Senior Director at SLPR, Dan manages client needs on a daily basis, taking the agency lead in public media events, media partnerships and on-the-spot, fast-breaking media coaching sessions. Clients have easily spent thousands of hours with him understanding how to better get their message delivered to and understood by the public.
Dan graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BA in English. He is a graduate from Leadership Greater Hartford’s Executive Orientation Program, and leads the SLPR team that has won 26 Mercury Awards over the past six years from the Greater Connecticut Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
Accomplishments
• An excellent writer and trusted media relations professional who has built a solid network with key media figures in every corner of the state.
• Leverages media relations efforts into Earned Media Value that well-exceeds client expectations.
• Managed the successful public introduction of a first-of-its-kind partnership between a leading senior care community and one of Connecticut’s top four-year-colleges.
• Led successful public relations campaign which resulted in landmark legislation entering Connecticut into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
• Spearheaded a statewide campaign to spotlight the role Connecticut’s nonprofit lending institutions played during the financial crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Community Involvement
An active community volunteer, Dan is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hartford’s Camp Courant, Assistant Secretary of the Board of Governors of The Hartford Club, President of the Connecticut Brain Tumor Alliance and a past president of the Greater Hartford Chapter of Business Networking International. He is Co-Senior Warden at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (East Longmeadow, MA) and for years was a coach and leader in youth sports leagues in Suffield, where he lives. He and his wife, Doreen, enjoy traveling, relaxing on their deck and spending time with their adult son Sam.
WHY WE ARE HERE…
“I came to Sullivan & LeShane Public Relations (SLPR) to be with the very best – this is a team without peer in understanding the Connecticut media and helping clients deliver the right messages on their own terms. SLPR’s hallmark is providing calm and trustworthy counsel to clients facing a highly discerning public – for someone who has worked in media in Connecticut since 1990, there is no better place to be.”