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MP&F Strategic Communications partner Katy Varney announces retirement

MP&F Strategic Communications partner Katy Varney announces retirement

By MP&F Staff

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 23, 2023)Katy Varney, a 30-year partner at MP&F Strategic Communications, announced her retirement today effective March 31.

“When I joined Mark McNeely, Mike Pigott and David Fox, the firm had 15 people. Today I have the privilege of working with 74 incredibly talented colleagues who put forth their all for each other, our company and our clients every day,” Varney said. “My partners are the best in the business, and I leave knowing MP&F Strategic Communications will continue to thrive. No one could ask for a more perfect job than the one I’ve enjoyed the last 30 years.”

Varney joined the firm in 1993, after stints in public affairs and state and national government.

She was the driving force behind a number of MP&F’s signature efforts, including the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference’s “Meth Destroys” campaign, Nashville’s “Curby” recycling campaign, the effort to defeat the “English Only” charter amendment and the World Wildlife Fund’s “Earth Hour” campaign. All won national Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil awards.

For more than 25 years, Varney led communications and marketing efforts for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Corps program, the firm’s largest client.

For more than a decade, MP&F has been recognized as one of the “best places to work” in Nashville. Varney is credited with being hugely influential in developing and maintaining the workplace culture at the firm.

“Katy broke the glass ceiling at MP&F by becoming the firm’s first female partner,” said Jennifer Brantley, managing partner. “She paved the way for Alice Chapman, Mary Elizabeth Davis, Knight Stivender, Kate Chinn and me to become partners, and for MP&F to now be a woman-owned business.”

Long active in civic causes, Varney serves on the boards of the Nashville Public Library and the Nashville Public Library Foundation and has recently been involved with WPLN and the YWCA. She played a key leadership role in the “Friends of Gaile Owens” campaign, which resulted in the commutation of Owens’ sentence and subsequent parole. Varney is an active member of Nashville’s Christ Church Cathedral.

She is a graduate of Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. She worked on the White House staffs of First Lady Rosalynn Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale and was chief legislative liaison for Gov. Ned McWherter.

MP&F will be led by partners Brantley, Davis, Stivender and Chinn. Keith Miles serves as partner emeritus.

News Coverage:

Nashville Business Journal: Katy Varney to retire as partner from MP&F Strategic Communications

Nashville Post: MP&F partner Katy Varney to retire

About MP&F Strategic Communications

Measurable, creative and effective strategies are hallmarks of Nashville-based MP&F Strategic Communications’ award-winning work. The agency, which has been in business for more than 35 years, provides public relations, marketing and advertising to ensure that its clients succeed. MP&F is a women-owned business and the largest locally owned communications, advertising and PR firm in the state of Tennessee.