READFIELD – Mark A. Ishkanian, former communications director and chief spokesman for Central Maine Power Co., has started his own public relations and communications company, Ishkanian Communications LLC.

It will offer communications analysis, strategies and services to business and nonprofit organizations. After 11 years with CMP, Ishkanian was most recently vice president for public affairs of the Maine Hospital Association.

Ishkanian’s partner in the new firm is Clark T. Irwin, formerly senior communications consultant at CMP, and previously a news, economics and feature writer, and a business columnist for the Guy Gannett newspaper of Portland.

Both men have won awards for their work. The Maine Public Relations Council has recognized Ishkanian with crisis communication and media relations awards. The council presented him with its highest honor, the Edward R. Bernays Award, for his public-information and safety-communication work during the severe electric outages caused by the January 1998 Ice Storm.

During his 12 years in journalism, Irwin won writing awards from the Associated Press and Maine Press Association, including the MPA’s Maine Journalist of the Year award for his coverage of economic and public-policy issues.

Ishkanian, a Readfield resident, is a graduate of Hartwick College with a master’s degree from Cornell University. He received his national accreditation in public relations from the Public Relations Society of America in 1999. Irwin lives in Cumberland Foreside. A graduate of Bowdoin College, Irwin holds a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and did graduate work in economics journalism at Princeton University.

More information on the company can be found at its Web site, www.ishcom.biz. People can contact Ishkanian at 685-9487 or [email protected].