About DSC Communications

Scott Cahill has more than 30 years of professional experience in public relations and government affairs, marketing, crisis and reputation management, and media relations. This includes senior executive positions with the country’s largest public relations/communications agency and the world’s largest retail trade association, senior policy and political positions with the United States Congress, and entrepreneurial management experience as the owner of a highly successful communications firm.
           
Mr. Cahill is currently the president of DSC Communications, a strategic communications and marketing company headquartered in Kansas City. Work includes managing and directing the public relations and public affairs department for a national financial services company and a regional community bank, developing policy communications efforts and local ballot initiatives, re-branding and developing a marketing campaign for a large professional services firm, assisting small municipalities with communications efforts, and providing marketing and public relations counsel for nonprofits, retailers, and the energy sector, among others.     

Prior to founding DSC, Mr. Cahill was a senior executive with Fleishman-Hillard (FH), the country’s largest public relations and communications agency, in their Kansas City Corporate and Public Affairs practice group. At FH, he managed and directed a team of professional staff in public relations and communications counsel to a variety of local and national clients, including Hallmark Cards, The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA), Applebee’s, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Allied Waste, Eli Lilly, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), among others. While at FH, Mr. Cahill directed a number of successful communications initiatives including: passage of a 3/8 cent sales tax increase for Kansas City’s Metro bus service; crisis management counsel for the Kansas City Missouri School District; and an environmental community relations effort during expansion of a landfill site.
            
Previously, Mr. Cahill was Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs at the National Retail Federation (NRF), the world’s largest retail trade association, in Washington, D.C.  In this role, he coordinated the government relations and public affairs agenda for the $3.5 trillion retail industry, representing more than 1.4 million establishments with 22 million employees. At NRF, Mr. Cahill represented retail and consumer interests before Congress, the White House, the States, and international governing bodies, while providing numerous corporations counsel on Federal and state legislation/regulation affecting operational business practices. He worked with a number of the nation’s leading retail companies, including Target, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Home Depot, Sears, The Gap, and numerous others. Mr. Cahill also helped manage a federal and state lobbying practice, grassroots outreach, and fundraising/Political Action Committee (PAC) efforts, as well as business development and member recruitment at NRF. He acted as the retail industry’s spokesperson on a variety of issues, working with local, national, and the international media. Mr. Cahill previously served as NRF's Senior Director of Tax and International Trade Affairs and Director of International Trade Policy.

Prior to NRF, Mr. Cahill was a key policy and political advisor in Washington D.C. for several influential Members of Congress. His Capitol Hill experience includes work for the chairwoman of a powerful House Ways and Means subcommittee, where he specialized in international trade and tax policy, as well as defense and national security issues. He also served as senior policy/political advisor to several other Members of Congress, where he focused on fiscal and economic issues, energy policy, and transportation issues, as well as community and media relations outreach efforts. He was a Members' Representative on the President's Export Council (PEC) and House Export Trade Task Force, and was a Congressional Representative on numerous trade, national security, and humanitarian missions in Eastern and Western Europe, Russia, Central America, South America, and Asia. Previously, he was a staff assistant for the House Wednesday Group, a Congressional think-tank dedicated to in-depth policy and economic analysis. During this period, Mr. Cahill also worked on several successful Congressional campaigns.
           
He has extensive media experience, with appearances and coverage including: CNN’s The World Today, Fox TV News, National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today, among others.

Mr. Cahill is a U.S. Naval War College graduate, receiving a master’s equivalent in international relations/national security studies. He also worked on a master's degree in Strategic Intelligence at the Joint Military Intelligence College (JMIC), located within the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He held Top Secret/SCI security clearances with the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency while employed by the federal government. He was also selected to attend the British Council’s European Dialogue Program at Oxford University, Oxford, England, and the École Nationale D’Administration in Strasbourg, France, focusing on U.S.-European Union relations and the transatlantic dialogue. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas.

Mr. Cahill currently sits on the Board of Directors for PACES, an organization providing behavioral healthcare to children in Kansas City and an affiliate of Wyandot Inc., and was previously on the Board of The Children's Museum of Kansas City.  He is on the Military Affairs Committee of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the International Relations Council of Kansas City. Mr. Cahill was recognized previously by Ingram’s business magazine as one of Kansas City’s 40 under 40 Power Elite, and his communications campaigns have helped clients achieve recognitions from the American Business Awards, the PR News Awards, the APEX Awards and many more.