CCG Team

At Civiello Communications Group, our expert team of trainers share years of experience coaching leaders in the profit and not for profit worlds around the world. Their energy and passion for strong communication combined with backgrounds in journalism better ensure that clients learn how to deliver their news in a way that makes an audience want to tune in and stay tuned!

Mary Civiello, President
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Mary Civiello is president of Civiello Communications Group (CCG), a leading executive communication coaching consultancy. A former NBC New York reporter and anchor, Mary has earned accolades on both sides of the microphone. As a media and presentation coach, she was dubbed the corporate executive's "Communications Guru" by the New York Times. Mary is the author of Communication Counts: Business Presentations for Busy People (June 2008; Wiley), and contributes to Postcards, a Fortune magazine blog aimed at top executives.

In her 2 decades as a journalist in New York, the nation's largest market, Mary won 6 Emmys and was presented with the Society of Professional Journalists prestigious "Deadline Club" award for investigative street reporting. She co-anchored TODAY IN NEW YORK and then anchored the news for CNBC and MSNBC.

Mary is a frequent speaker for business, charitable and academic groups. She has taught presentation skills at Columbia University and is in demand as a TV news guest commenting on candidates' or CEOs' communication style. Raised in Kansas City, Mary received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Journalism and Human Environmental Science from the University of Missouri - Columbia.

Dan Broden

Dan Broden is a former national television anchor and reporter, as well as an attorney. As a media and presentation skills coach and consultant to CCG, Dan counsels our clients on mastering the art of persuasive communication.

Dan has trained numerous CEOs and top executives from such diverse clients as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Pitney Bowes, Merck Serono, Samsung, Subway, American Express, Siemens, Timex, NY Life, Cantor Fitzgerald, and the NBA. He has also coached a variety of celebrity spokespeople including Duchess Sarah Ferguson, Dick Clark, Walt Frazier, Henry Winkler, Danica Patrick, Jim Belushi, Mia Hamm, Lauren Bacall, Keith Hernandez, and Michael Strahan. He lectures regularly on communications training, most recently at Columbia University, NYU, and Rutgers University.

Before becoming a communications coach, Dan headed up the Communications Training Network at Ketchum, one of the world's leading public relations agencies. He joined Ketchum in 2001, following an eight-year career in television.

During this time, Dan spent seven years at Court TV as a news anchor, show host, reporter, and producer. In those capacities, he covered high-profile legal stories including the Presidential Impeachment trial, both Oklahoma City bombing trials, the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, the O.J. Simpson criminal and civil trials, and the first Bosnian war crimes trial in The Hague, Netherlands. After Court TV, Dan became Co-Executive Producer and fill-in host of the nationally syndicated program The People's Court.

Dan earned his B.A. from Brown University and his law degree from The George Washington University Law School. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Japanese.


Jim Gray

Jim Gray is a veteran communications coach who has helped plan and implement sharp, productive communication strategies for organizations across a range of sectors. A key member of CCG's Media and Presentation Training team, he has helped hundreds of professionals - from corporate executives and politicians to celebrity spokespeople - to become powerful speakers, on and off camera. "I consider myself an assistant storyteller," says Gray. "I help our clients cut through the information clutter to create and convey stories that are clear, concise and relevant."

He contributes articles on communicating effectively to The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, and just published his first book, How Leaders Speak, published by The Dundurn Group.

Jim is a graduate of Acadia University.


Jane Hanson

Emmy winning television journalist, Jane Hanson, brings over 30 years of reporting experience to CCG's media and presentation coaching team.  She has coached CEO's, chefs, editors, publishers, top financial advisors, world renowned physicians and government leaders.  Jane has spent nearly three decades at the NBC networks, where she began as an anchor and correspondent for WNBC New York in 1979. Much of her career there has been in live television, anchoring the award winning Today in New York for 18 years, and creating and hosting her own program, Jane's New York.  She continues to work in the broadcast world, hosting NBC’s LXTV program and other specialized programming for cable and network outlets. One of her specialties is understanding what works in the media and in business presentations.

Jane has won 9 Emmy Awards, in addition to numerous other honors, including being named "Correspondent of the Year" by New York's Police Detectives and from New York's Firefighters.

Over the years Jane has served as the March of Dimes Walk-America Chairman, honorary New York chair for the Susan B. Komen Foundation's "Race for the Cure,"; has served as a board member for Graham Windham,  Phipps Houses, the Randall's Island Sports Foundation, the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center and Telecare. She is a past President of the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Jane is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism.


Alexander Kippen

Alexander Kippen brings a broad journalism background to our clients. As a media and presentation coach and consultant, Alexander assists clients in developing structures that help them better organize and evaluate the information they plan to use for news interviews, industry presentations and panel discussions, speeches and analyst calls.

Alexander draws from experience that includes TV production for political talk-show host John McLaughlin, as well as media and internal communications consulting for a several start-up software companies.

Starting out as a reporter, Alexander covered the U.S. Congress, the first Bush administration, and Bill Clinton's first White House term for Canada's Global Television Network and for The Fox Morning News. He has contributed reports to CNN and National Geographic, written for New York, Creative Screenwriting, The SAIS Foreign Observer, and The Washington Monthly.

Before teaching journalism as an adjunct professor at American University in Washington DC, Alexander was a foreign policy and economics graduate of George Washington and Johns Hopkins Universities.


Manny Ramos

Manny Ramos works with executives and spokespeople to ensure they are prepared and confident whether interviewing with reporters, speaking in public, or in front of a camera. Drawing on a career in broadcasting and journalism spanning more than three decades, Manny is uniquely qualified to conduct media and presentation skills training workshops tailored to each client's individual needs. Having conducted more than 20,000 interviews, Manny knows what makes news, how to craft messages that cut through the clutter, how to tell a story - and how not to.

During his career in television news, Manny was the recipient of six Emmy awards including the Emmy for Outstanding Reporter. His work has been recognized with awards from, among others, the Radio and Television News Directors Association, the World Affairs Council, the Bay Area Press Association, and the Associated Press.

The phrase "he's seen it all" comes to mind in describing Manny's career. As a young cub reporter in Sacramento, one of his first assignments was to cover then Governor Ronald Reagan. Manny has followed Pope John Paul II around the country, camped in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, been shot at during the Contra War in Nicaragua, and gone yachting with Queen Elizabeth. His work has been featured in many national newscasts and shown at the Smithsonian Institution.

Manny has lectured at the University of California-Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and San Jose State University. He is a Silver Circle Member of the National Association of Television Arts & Sciences and a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The first member of his family ever to attend college, Manny was named a Distinguished Alumnus of his alma mater, San Jose State University.