Mark McNeely, owner and senior partner of McNeely Pigott and Fox, will receive the 2015 Donald G. Hileman Alumni Award from the College of Communication and Information at its awards and scholarship donation appreciation banquet at 6:30 p.m. Friday, November 6.
The banquet will be held at the Holiday Inn Knoxville Downtown at World’s Fair Park, 525 Henley Street.
In 1987, McNeely founded McNeely Pigott and Fox, an award-winning public relations firm based in Nashville, as a one-person consultancy after a career in journalism and politics. Previously, he served as capital bureau chief for the Knoxville News Sentinel and as Al Gore’s first state director.
As founding and senior partner, McNeely is responsible for overall firm management as well as client relations. Under his leadership McNeely Pigott and Fox became the largest public relations firm in the state and has won numerous national, regional, and local awards for outstanding work, including a National Gold SABRE Award in 2015, a SABRE Award in 2011, and designation as one of the best public relations firms to work for—all from the Holmes report in New York City—and six Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil Awards.
McNeely is an emeritus member and former chair of the College of Communication and Information’s Board of Visitors, where he served with distinction from 2001 to 2015. He has been recognized by the Nashville Women’s Political Caucus in its annual “Good Guys” Awards, serves on the board of directors of the Nashville Downtown Rotary Club, and has been active in the Greater Nashville Chamber of Commerce.
McNeely is also active in the Public Relations Society of America Nashville chapter, which honored him in 2007 with the chapter’s annual Hercules Award for professional contributions to public relations.
Other CCI alumni to receive awards at the banquet are:
Advertising Alumnus of the Year: Adam Brown (’94), executive strategist, Salesforce.com
Communication Studies Alumna of the Year: Elizabeth Clement Webb (’03), special assistant to the deputy director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Information Sciences Alumna of the Year: Danuta Nitecki (master’s degree, ’76), dean of libraries and professor of computing and informatics, Drexel University
Journalism and Electronic Media Alumna of the Year: Tori Blase (’93), supervisor and executive producer, CNN
Public Relations Alumna of the Year: Ellen Liston (’84), publicist, the Dollywood Company
The Donald G. Hileman Award is named for the first permanent dean of the College of Communications, forerunner to the College of Communication and Information. The award was established in 1994 in celebration of the college’s twenty-fifth anniversary. It is awarded to college alumni who have made notable contributions to the field of communication and information.
Past recipients of the Hileman Alumni Award include Sharon Price John, CEO and president of Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc.; Charles Tombras Jr., CEO of the Tombras Group advertising agency; Alexia Poe, principal at Poe Consulting and former director of communications for Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam; Alan Wilson, McCormick and Company Inc. chairman, president, and CEO; Alan N. Greenberg, president and cofounder of Avenues the World School and former Esquire magazine publisher; John Noble Wilford, Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times science journalist; and Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos quarterback, former UT quarterback, and five-time NFL MVP.
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CONTACT:
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)