Ronn Torossian

Early life

Torossian was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in The Bronx and attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City. While at SUNY Albany, Torossian became national president of the North American branch of Betar, the international Zionist youth movement associated with Israel's Likud party. In 1994, Torossian and Rabbi Avi Weiss publicly protested against the awarding of the Nobel Peace Price to Yassar Arafat, and were detained and released. After college, he moved to Israel, and co-founded with fellow Betar members who also became Israeli politicians, Danny Danon and Yoel Hasson, an organization called "Yerushalayim Shelanu" (Our Jerusalem), which promoted Israeli settlement in Eastern Jerusalem.

Career

Torossian began his career in public relations in 1998, working with then New York City Council speaker Peter Vallone, Sr. during Vallone's trip to Israel. He also worked for the Likud Party in Israel.

He worked at two firms, including The MWW Group, before launching his own firm. In 2002, Torossian opened 5W Public Relations. The New York Times called him "brash and aggressively outspoken."

Torossian has also written the book For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations.

Torossian was on Advertising Age's "40 under 40" list in 2006 and PR Week's "40 under 40" list in 2007.

In addition to his PR company, Torossian is the Chief Marketing Officer, a Partner, and Advisory Board Member of the jet-sharing company JetSmarter.

A spokesperson for the New Israel Fund wrote that Torossian has "teamed up" with Pamela Geller and an article in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles found evidence that he "works in some capacity with Geller." Torossian denies that there is any professional relationship between the two.

5WPR

Torossian's public relations agency, 5WPR, was ranked in 2014 by The New York Observer as the number 35 PR company in New York City. In 2017, the public relations reporting organization J. R. O'Dwyer Company ranked 5W Public Relations at number 11 among companies which submitted income and employee information to them, with revenues at $24 million.

In 2008, the company was discovered to have posted fraudulent comments to defend Agriprocessors, a kosher food company that was a client.

Reception

Torossian's aggressive PR tactics have won him both praise and criticism. Business Week called him "loud, crass, buzz-obsessed," the "Bad Boy of Buzz," and the self-anointed "brash new face of PR." Atlantic Monthly writer Jeffrey Goldberg called him "the most disreputable flack in New York", particularly criticizing his representation of what Goldberg called the "lunatic fringe" of right-wing Israeli politics. Gawker's Hamilton Nolan wrote that Torossian "embodies the public's worst ideas about what a PR person is: loud, brash, more flash than substance, dirty, manipulative, amoral, and, in the end, not particularly bright." The editor of the Jerusalem Post wrote that Torossian and his colleagues were "nuts."

On the other hand, clients have cited his "unlimited energy" and his unique approach to public relations as reasons for hiring him. Jameel Spencer, former CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment-affiliated Blue Flame Marketing and Advertising, called Torossian "one of my most trusted business counsels," A The Jerusalem Post profile of him cited his "meteoric rise in the business world today". Another client compared Torossian to former basketball player Dennis Rodman, whom "Everyone hated to play against. But if he was on your team, you loved him". A Forward story said, "His aggressive style may not always be pretty, but the results speak for themselves."

Some commentators see Torossian's style as a sign of the times. He is "one of the New Yorkiest practitioners of this quintessentially New York profession... the consummate scrappy publicist," wrote The New York Times. Businessweek wrote, "Torossian has anointed himself the brash new face of PR ... echoes the raw, unvarnished discourse of the blogosphere... Few seem better equipped to navigate a celebrity-obsessed culture."

Personal life

Torossian has two children. He lives in Manhattan.