Profile

John Heenehan, Principal, Rubicon Crossing Communications

After a 20-year journey in corporate communications at some Fortune 200 companies, John Heenehan has launched Rubicon Crossing Communications. He is a versatile and accomplished writer – his strengths are in corporate employee and business communications.

During the first phase of his career, John was an award-winning journalist. He worked as a correspondent for The Hartford Courant, and as a reporter and editor at The Bridgeport Post (now The Connecticut Post) and The Tampa Tribune.

Corporate Communications

In the corporate world, John wrote for a variety of media, from C-level communications to electronic and publication content. He regularly communicated to a global audience at American Airlines (100,000 employees) and Northwest Airlines (55,000), while his audiences at KPMG (25,000) and Maersk Line (7,000) were national.

John is in his second year on the Board of Directors with the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) New Jersey. He currently serves as Vice President of Professional Development. In his prior term, John served as the Awards Director and managed the chapter’s annual IRIS Awards Program and Gala. He upgraded the awards program by shifting its entire processes online – including registration, entry and judging.

Community Service

John has a long history of volunteering in the community. Currently, he donates his services as a writer at Morristown Memorial Hospital.

In the past, John taught a Citizenship Class to immigrants and refugees, served on the speaker’s bureau of a family planning organization, was a Big Brother, and taught literacy to adults. He also organized and taught an English-as-a-Second Language class for his international colleagues at Northwest Airlines.

Education

John was selected as a Gannett Fellow and earned an M.S. in Journalism at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. He earned a B.A. in history at Central Connecticut State University.

On the Personal Side

John resides in Madison, N.J., with Roxanne, his wife of 28 years, their two daughters, Pearl and Jade, and dog, Nokomis. He loves the shore, traveling, reading (history and literature), picnics, film (eclectic), music (also eclectic), museums, baseball, jogging and daytrips to New York City.
John F. Heenehan

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“Crossing the Rubicon” – What Does it Mean?

The phrase “Crossing the Rubicon” comes from Ancient Rome and is a metaphor for deliberately passing a point of no return. More than 2,000 years ago, the Rubicon River was the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul (what is today northern Italy) and the Roman heartland.

The Roman Republic – to protect against a coup d’état –had decreed it treasonous for a general to cross the Rubicon with an army.

In 49 BCE, Julius Caesar defiantly crossed the river with a Roman legion. He reportedly said “Alea iacta est” (“The die is cast”) during the crossing, sparking a civil war. Caesar prevailed and became the leader of the Roman Empire.

When I accept a project, I feel I have crossed the Rubicon – though in a much humbler fashion than did Caesar. Rather than committing an act of treason, I am committing to seeing the project through to its successful completion.