Geoff Morrell, who recently served a short-lived stint as Disney’s top spokesperson, has been retained by the Saudi Public Investment Fund to help with media relations for the PIF’s partnership with the PGA Tour.
In a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing this week, Morrell disclosed he would be providing “the foreign principal with communications and stakeholder consulting services.”
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Morrell’s time at Disney lasted less than four months, which were dominated by the company’s ongoing contention with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Morrell left the job in the spring of 2022, and earlier this year was named president of Teneo, the global consulting and communications firm, which had an existing relationship with the Public Investment Fund on a number of its other investments.
In August 2022, Teneo and the PIF signed a 12-month, $2.7 million agreement to “tackle many tasks at once,” according to a copy of the services contract filed with the Department of Justice. It is not known whether PIF will be paying Teneo more money to specifically address the spike in public scrutiny over LIV Golf’s partnering with the PGA Tour.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has scheduled a hearing on July 11 to examine “the risks posed by a foreign government entity assuming control over a cherished American institution.”
Before Disney, Morrell ran communications for BP and served as a top Pentagon spokesperson. Prior to that he had a career as a television journalist.
In May, LIV Golf hired Gitcho Goodwin, the Austin, Texas-based PR firm, to do strategic communications for a fee of $55,000. That firm retroactively registered as a foreign agent, but reportedly ended the relationship when news of its registration became public.
Last week, the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund filed to formally dismiss their litigation against each other after announcing a “landmark agreement to unify the game of golf.”
The news of Morrell’s registration was first noted on Twitter by The New York Times reporter Ken Vogel.
(The headline of this article has been updated to correctly reflect the PGA Tour-PIF joint venture.)
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