89 Peanuts, Inc.

Introduction: Bruce Shutan is a versatile Los Angeles freelance writer who has written for more than 100 publications or corporate entities over more than 30 years and recently began ghostwriting self-published books. His extensive reporting on the American workplace dates back to 1985, with a showbiz sideline developed in 2000 when he began contributing to Variety – a must-read for entertainment industry insiders for more than a century. In 2012, he ghostwrote “How I Discovered Tikkun Olam Through Philanthropy,” the memoirs of Canadian chartered accountant and Jewish philanthropist Leonard Cordes. It was a natural career move for Shutan, who became fascinated with life stories as a child while watching the original “Biography” TV series in the 1960s narrated by Mike Wallace. This discovery fueled his passion for journalism as well as the written word. When Shutan told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace at a 2015 conference in Washington, D.C., that his father inspired him to become a journalist, his immediate response with a wry smile was "me, too." Shutan has been quoted about employee benefit trends in The Wall Street Journal’s interactive edition and syndicated radio program on work-life issues, Reuters and other media outlets. For 10 years, he was managing editor of Employee Benefit News before serving as conference program chairman of the national magazine’s Benefits Management Forum & Expo. Shutan also led several roundtable and panel discussions at the 2007 invitation-only Employee Benefits Forum, produced by Connex International. He has written for several leading human resource trade publications, including Employee Benefit Plan Review, Human Resource Executive, Incentive, Plan Sponsor, Risk & Insurance and Workspan. He also was the original writer and editor of Voluntary.com InBrief, a weekly e-newsletter about employee-pay-all benefit trends that prompted one industry insider to light-heartedly describe him as “the Bob Woodward of voluntary benefits.” In addition, he has written numerous advertorials and white papers, as well as ghostwritten numerous articles on HR and benefit trends. He also has written for several entertainment trade publications, including Daily Variety, Weekly Variety, emmy, the 55th Annual Emmy Awards program, Below the Line News (for which he covered the 56th and 57th Annual Emmy Awards presentation at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and 76th and 77th Annual Academy Awards presentation at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood), Film Score Monthly, Computer Graphics World, the CG Society, VFXWorld.com, DRUM! and OnlineRock.com. He has quoted top Hollywood talent, including actors Robert De Niro, Ray Romano and Eric Stoltz, actor-comedian Bill Bellamy, director John Woo, cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel and composer Alan Bergman. He also has interviewed celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, famed discrimination attorney Gloria Allred and former Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams. He has been a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Los Angeles Press Club, as well as a contributor to Quill, and was a featured contractor on Thumbtack. His career in journalism began in 1983 when he served as managing editor of The Black River Tribune, a Vermont weekly, followed by a stint as Sunday editor and deputy business editor of The Gaston Gazette, a North Carolina daily. He also wrote for The New Haven Advocate, New Haven Preview, The Connecticut Jewish Ledger and The Hamden Chronicle. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University’s School of Public Communication and interned at The Boston Phoenix, the nation’s second-largest alternative newsweekly, while attending college. Shutan has performed and recorded as a drummer in several musical groups since the 1970s. Other passions include hiking, bicycling, golf, Mindfulness meditation and Bikram yoga. He also has done volunteer work for Project Chicken Soup and KJAZZ, America’s premier jazz and blues public radio station. He is a single father with three children.