Randy King founded RanKing Communications in 2012 after becoming an independent consultant with Harrisburg-based Triad Strategies, where he served as a Senior Communications Associate for five years following a twenty-two year career of service to the City of Harrisburg and former Mayor Stephen R. Reed. He initially served the city as its first-ever full-time Special Events Director, organizing and planning what eventually grew to more than two hundred annual events, including major festivals, concert series, races, neighborhood celebrations, holiday fetes, parades and more. He was also instrumental in crafting one of the first municipal sponsorship programs in the state, which by 2009 was realizing more than $500,000 in annual event donations to the city.

Randy left city employment for a brief period of time in 1988 to serve as one of the co-owners of a major international special events company which featured choreographed laser and fireworks shows. He served as one of three co-producers of the Opening Ceremonies for the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada, and has produced halftime shows for the Aloha, Cotton, and Fiesta College bowls. He has additionally coordinated major parades across the country, including the Dallas Adolphus Parade, the Minneapolis Aquatennial Parade and the Springfield, Mass. St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Randy returned to city employment in 1989 as Mayor Reed’s Press Secretary and Director of Communications, assuming all responsibilities for the day-to-day communications of the city. In this capacity he also served as the Public Information Officer for the Harrisburg Bureaus of Police and Fire, and on the city’s highly-regarded Emergency Management Agency, considered one of the finest municipal emergency response entities in the state. In the early 2000’s he became one of the first municipal public information officers in the nation to successfully attain certifications under the newly adopted National Incident Management System and its related Incident Command System. He has since conducted extensive NIMS and ICS training session for municipal officials at the annual PA League of Cities conference and other events.

Randy has handled communications through countless blizzards, hazmat incidents, fires, floods, tornados, and other major public safety incidents, and he was one of the city’s personnel assigned to PA Task Force One, the federal urban search and rescue task force that was first on the scene at the World Trade Center on 9-11. He also spent time at Ground Zero in New York City following the 9/11 attacks, assisting in the search and communications activities.

As Press Secretary to former Mayor Reed, Randy handled virtually all of the public communications activities of the city, ranging from mayoral communications and press outreach to publication design, copywriting, advertising placement and more. He was responsible for establishing the city’s first-ever online presence, HarrisburgPA.gov, and in the late 1990’s founded the city’s first-ever cable access station and programming. Randy was a former Democratic city committeeman and elected Vice-President of the Harrisburg School Board. King also served as the city’s official designee to the regional Harrisburg-Hershey Regional Visitors Bureau, for whom he served three terms as board chairman. He was also a 12-year member of the PA State Farm Show Commission, appointed by three separate governors to three different terms of office, each of which were unanimously approved by the PA State Senate.