New firm will launch June 1, co-locate with MP&F, share projects
NASHVILLE – MP&F Public Relations founder Mark McNeely plans to form a related strategic communications consultancy housed in MP&F’s Nashville offices effective June 1, it was announced today.
“This has been a long-term dream, and I am looking forward to transitioning to this new role, where my partner will be my daughter, Kelly Brockman, and we will focus on executive-level media relations, media training, crisis communications and strategic planning,” said McNeely, who started the firm that became MP&F in 1987.
“I will still be working with some MP&F clients, physically present and available to assist, and on call for any of MP&F’s client or management needs,” he said of the still-in-formation McNeely Brockman Public Relations unit.
“Last year was the most successful in MP&F’s history, and I am proud to have been a small part of that success. But as MP&F continues to grow, there has to be new leadership to take the company forward, and this is one step to help make that possible and still allow me to do what I enjoy most, which is counseling clients to help them meet their organizational goals,” he said.
MP&F is the largest independent, Tennessee-owned PR firm in the state, and has been involved since its inception in many high-profile projects in Nashville, Tennessee and beyond, from opening the Bridgestone Arena, Nissan Stadium, Downtown Library and Country Music Hall of Fame to helping bring the Tennessee Titans to Nashville and helping preserve the Nashville Predators franchise, to paving the way for wine in grocery stores in Tennessee and, currently, the referendum to fund mass transit in Metro Nashville.
“Mark is an entrepreneur at heart. He founded this firm and has been a huge part of MP&F for 30-plus years, and Kelly is a part of our family as well, so we consider ourselves lucky that MBPR will continue to be a presence at our firm,” said MP&F managing partner David Fox. “We also see it as an asset to MP&F that we have an affiliated agency with whom to share projects and initiatives. We hope to be an asset for MBPR as well.”
“Partners David, Katy Varney, Keith Miles, Alice Chapman and Jennifer Brantley are all longtime friends and colleagues, and will continue to guide MP&F’s market-leading team, which also counts regional and national organizations among its many clients,” McNeely said.
Before forming MP&F in 1987, McNeely was a journalist with The Knoxville Journal, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis and the Knoxville News Sentinel. He left the newspaper world to serve on U.S. Sen. Jim Sasser’s state staff, manage the 1982 re-election campaign for the Tennessee Supreme Court, serve as communications coordinator for Sasser’s 1982 re-election campaign, manage the 1983 re-election campaign for Nashville Mayor Richard Fulton, serve as campaign communications coordinator in the U.S. Senate campaign in 1983–84 of then-U.S. Rep. Al Gore, and was named Gore’s state director when Gore started his first term in the U.S. Senate in 1985. He is a 1970 graduate of the University of Tennessee–Knoxville.
Brockman has 18 years of experience in the corporate, nonprofit, government and public relations sectors and is a veteran in her own right. She specializes in crisis communication, internal communications, navigating local and state government, and media training. She currently is serving as the spokesperson for the “Transit For Nashville” campaign, which culminates in the May 1 referendum. She was a member of the MP&F staff from 2008–2013, and was instrumental in managing media relations against the divisive English-Only referendum during that time. She managed a team of storytellers that provided internal and external communications for Tennessee State Parks and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation from 2013–2016, and she spent the past year as chief communications officer for the Metro Nashville Department of Public Works.
Other experience includes serving as marketing manager for the Chattanooga Airport Authority and the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville and communications director for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance from 2002–2008. She is a 2000 graduate of UT–Chattanooga.
About MP&F Public Relations
MP&F Public Relations is an award-winning, full-service public relations firm in Nashville, Tenn. MP&F provides total communications and marketing services for a diversified client mix at the local, regional and national levels. MP&F is also one of the largest independent public relations firms in the Southeast. For more information, go to www.mpfnewsite.wpengine.com.
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