Brian Lewis (PR executive)


Brian Lewis is an American public relations executive and former Executive Vice President at Fox News.

Early life

Lewis was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Julian Lewis and Dorothy Lewis. He earned a B.S. in Communications from St. John's University in 1980 and an M.A. in Organizational Communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1995. Later, he returned to Fairleigh Dickinson as an adjunct professor in the school's media program. Later, he returned to Fairleigh Dickinson University as an adjunct professor after teaching two years at the Fordham Graduate School of Business.
Lewis started his career doing public relations for the New York Arrows indoor soccer club. He later served as an executive at Howard J. Rubinstein Associates, Financial News Network and CNBC.

Fox News

In April 1996 Roger Ailes hired Lewis, who was then working for CNBC, as vice president of media relations for Fox News Channel. Lewis oversaw the public relations strategy for the launch and positioning of the network, which started broadcasting seven months later. Lewis was only the fifth employee hired by Ailes at FNC and later, he was promoted to senior vice president of corporate communications for Fox News in 2000, and then to executive vice president of corporate communications for Fox television stations and Fox News in 2006. He also served as a senior adviser to Roger Ailes and was reportedly a member of his inner circle.
In 2009, Lewis was given the added title of The Senior Advisor to Roger Ailes to go along with his Executive VP title.
In July 2013 Lewis was terminated for "issues relating to financial irregularities" though subsequent reporting notes the cause as cooperating with Gabe Sherman during the writing of his biography of Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room.
In September 2016, at the peak of #MeToo movement it became known that Megyn Kelly in 2012 asked Brian Lewis to influence Roger Ailes in order to stop sexual harassing. According to investigation New York's Gabriel Sherman, Lewis' attempts to stop Alies and stop the violence were rejected.

Personal life

Lewis married Susan Lampasona on March 7, 1987. They have two daughters and a son.

Popular culture

In the 2019 Showtime mini-series The Loudest Voice, Lewis was portrayed by Seth MacFarlane.