Philip S. Angell

Philip S. Angell is currently the Editor-in-Chief of World Resources Report published by World Resources Institute (WRI), a Washington D.C. based think tank. Prior to joining WRI Angell had worked as a PR adviser for Monsanto and before that Browning-Ferris Industries. In conjunction with the Washington D.C. PR firm, the Bivings Group, he founded HearingRoom.com, a short-lived Congressional monitoring website for clients. He has also worked with the Republican political consultancy, Bailey, Deardourff and Associates, and as a senior advisor to two Administrators of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Background
Angell was director of corporate communications for the biotechnology and pesticide company Monsanto between October 1997 and June 1999.

He had also worked with Browning-Ferris Industries (1994).

After leaving Monsanto, Angell became Chairman of HearingRoom.com, a website that offered clients an online monitoring service of Congress. On its website at the time the company boasted that it offered "real time text transcripts with linked audio, searchable text and LiveWireAlerts™, all the written testimony and more." The website was a partnership with the Washington DC based PR firm, the Bivings Group. The website acknowledged that "technology provided by the bivings group", Gary Bivings was listed as "Chief Technology Officer" and Jake Levine was listed as "Project Manager" of the website as well as being the "Director of New Venture Management at The Bivings Group." (The Bivings Group represented Monsanto. )

In December 2002 the Hearingroom.com website optimistically stated that it had "temporarily suspended its service as of January, 2002. It is not expected to resume until April, 2002." It never re-started.

A biographical note from 2000 on the hearingroom.com site stated that, in addition to his role with Browning-Ferris and Monsanto, Angell had worked as "a political consultant and as chief of staff to the Administrator of the U.S. EPA".

Angell was described as "a long-time confidant of Monsanto director William D. Ruckelshaus, who is chairman of waste hauler Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. (BFI). Angell was chief of staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when Mr. Ruckelshaus served as administrator in the mid-1980s." A Washington Post report from January 1985 described Angell as having "served at the right hand - some say as the right hand - of William D. Ruckelshaus until Ruckelshaus left the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month." It also described him as having had "an on-again, off-again job" over a "14-year association" with "the Washington political consulting firm of Bailey, Deardourff."

Angell also worked for EPA Administrator Michael O. Leavitt in 2003.

Quotable Quotes
Quote: "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the F.D.A.'s job" - Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications, October 1998.

Asked about a Monsanto advertising campaign in the UK that increased opposition to genetically engineered food, Angell stated "Maybe we weren't aggressive enough. . . . When you fight a forest fire, sometimes you have to light another fire." - Phil Angell, Communications Director, Monsanto.

Affiliations

 * Political consultant with Bailey, Deardourff and Associates