Quinn Hudson, APR
Quinn has more than 25 years of experience in public relations, executive communications, public affairs and community relations.
He has provided communications counsel and programs for Delta Air Lines, UPS, Georgia-Pacific, Recall Corporation, Coca-Cola North America and Matria Healthcare, among others. Quinn managed the Olympics sponsorship program for Xerox Corp. during the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games in 1996. Prior to founding HCG, he led business-to-business communications at GCI Group, one of Atlanta’s largest and most respected agencies.
Quinn is a member of the operating board for the Commerce Club of Atlanta and the membership committee for the Midtown Alliance, and is on the board of the Atlanta Chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute and the Association for Corporate Growth.
Bill Crane - Principal, Media Relations/Strategy
Bill Crane is nearing 20 years as a senior communications strategist. Beginning his career in broadcasting, Crane went on to staff positions under Georgia's Gold Dome, and later Capitol Hill, serving two U.S. Senators and one Governor. Crane has significant economic development experience, working as Vice-President of Marketing and Communications for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce during Atlanta's Olympic years. For the past decade, Crane was Senior Vice President with the GCI Group, a global public relations firm, and led client engagements for AFLAC, Cousins Properties, Deloitte Consulting, InterContinental Hotels Group and Johnson & Johnson among others. Crane continues his broadcast work as a political commentator for Atlanta's NBC affiliate as well as News/Talk750 WSB-AM and CNN International.
Molly Badgett - APR, Senior Counselor
Journalism. Public relations. Advertising. Corporate communications. Molly’s experience in all these disciplines makes her resourceful enough to apply a well-focused solution to your communications needs. Whether it’s writing a highly detailed white paper or posting a strategically located billboard, Molly knows how to go about it – and why. Among the familiar names you can find on Molly’s résumé are USA TODAY, Gannett, Procter & Gamble, and Lloyds of London, not to mention the Robinson School of Business at Georgia State University. Already an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America, Molly earned her MBA in Marketing from Georgia State, where she also is a part-time instructor of Business Communications.
Bill Bond - Visual Communications
Bill is a skilled writer and an expert at creating presentations. For 22 years he worked in the corporate travel and hospitality industry managing a range of marketing initiatives – including branding, speech writing, corporate communications and event planning. Today, Bill writes speeches and designs presentations for a variety of clients, including Georgia Institute of Technology, Matria Healthcare, oneworld Airline Alliance and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Bill's passion for powerful visualization keeps audiences engaged and content memorable and meaningful. His motto: "This is a no-blah zone."
Allison Conrad – Branding Strategy
Allison has more than 17 years of experience in brand strategy development and marketing communications. For 12 years she worked at IBM, where she was a Global Brand Manager. At IBM, Allison was responsible for developing brand initiatives and customer relationship programs in more than 20 countries. Most recently at HCG, she managed a re-branding program for an $8 billion global company. Allison knows how to reach the “Man in the Middle.”
Tack Cornelius – Executive Messaging
Tack Cornelius’s experience in journalism, government, and the corporate world taught him how the media work, how to sharpen a vague message into one that will stick, and how to communicate the message. He has worked as a reporter in Washington, as an aide and speech writer for Kentucky Governor Martha Layne Collin, and for two CEOs at BellSouth. Tack has written speeches and corporate communications plans for several HCG clients. He knows how to get executives out of the bunker to be effective communicators for the organization. Tack is also noted for teaching speechwriting, whether for beginners or veteran writers.
Grayson Hurst Daughters – Social Media Consultant
Grayson Hurst Daughters honed her mainstream media credentials with almost 20 years of experience in broadcast journalism, editorial writing and corporate communications. In the last few years, however, she’s left the comforts and confines of the mainstream and taken a wild ride down the social media trail. Occasionally she surfaces to write a mainstream editorial or two, then it’s back down the social media road, because not only is social media addictive, it is simply the most fun she’s ever had in communications. Grayson indulges herself in all-things-Internet by blogging every day; by producing and writing broadband video, original Web shows, and podcasts; and, of course, by YouTubing as if her life depends on it. Your company’s communications lifeline could very well depend on social media, too.
Jeff Dickerson – Public Affairs
Jeff served as a journalist for 22 years, spending most of that time crafting and honing arguments for the editorial pages of The Detroit News and The Atlanta Journal. As an editorial writer for The Atlanta Journal, Dickerson specialized in some of the editorial page’s most complicated and controversial topics, including federal budgets, taxation, Social Security reform, state and local issues, and analyses of appellate and U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Jeff has managed several important business-driver issues for HCG clients. He knows when to get in the media and how not to when necessary.
Amy Gray, APR – Nashville Media and Community Relations
Amy has 14 years of experience in corporate, healthcare and nonprofit public relations, with an emphasis in designing integrated marketing communications programs that are aligned with a company’s business goals and that utilize a mix of media and community relations, strategic partnerships and internal communications. Amy earned her accreditation in public relations (APR) status from the Public Relations Society of America in 2003 and serves as the public service chair for the Nashville Chapter of PRSA. She also assists several nonprofits in the community, including the Eating Disorder Coalition of Tennessee, Homework Hotline, Fellowship Bible Church, and the School of Dance.
Janet Harrell – Technology
Janet is a skilled writer and communications strategist with more than a decade of experience, much of it in high tech. Janet’s career, a combination of corporate and agency experience, includes serving as a senior-level corporate communicator and PR manager for the nation's largest healthcare information systems vendor; holding senior account manager positions at high-tech public relations agencies; and serving as staff editor for Bottom Line/Personal, a bimonthly newsletter published by Boardroom Reports, Inc. Besides a flair for Cajun cooking, she knows how to mix the right ingredients for a good message.
Susan Hart – Nashville Media and Community Relations
Beginning her career as a journalist, Susan Hart, APR, has more than 22 years of professional experience in corporate, agency and non-profit public relations. Using the key elements of research, planning, implementation and evaluation, Susan helps organizations accomplish their business goals through strategic public relations and marketing planning, internal communications, writing, media relations, media training and crisis preparedness and management. She currently represents local and national clients in health care, technology and professional services.
Jennifer Hartz – Corporate Community Involvement
Jenn provides community and government relations consulting and project management services to companies seeking to leverage partnerships to address business issues. She is a former consultant with McKinsey & Company and Towers Perrin, and was in community relations with The Home Depot, McKinsey & Company, Georgia-Pacific, and iXL Enterprises. The volunteer program she developed at The Home Depot was recognized with a Presidential Service Award in a White House ceremony. Jenn’s volunteer leadership roles have included organizations such as WhyServe, Hands On Atlanta, the Entrepreneur’s Foundation, Anti-Defamation League, TechBridge, Digital Ball, Atlanta International School, Atlanta Women’s Foundation, Westminster Schools, Atlanta Girls School, Temple Sinai, Atlanta Housing Forum, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank. She also is a 2002 International Marshall Memorial Fellow. Jenn can help you connect.
Charles McNair – “The Culture Doctor”
Charles McNair has deep skills and experience in employee communications and employee relations that have led to national and international assignments with top global companies. In 1997, Charles served as Business Editor for South magazine, which won eight awards by the Magazine Association of Georgia in 1997, including best magazine in the state. His novel, “Land O' Goshen” (St. Martin's Press, 1994) received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for fiction and critical acclaim from The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, and other important publications. He held the position of Director/Internal Communications at BellSouth Corporation’s holding company, coordinating communication strategies and change messaging for 11 decentralized BellSouth companies, including international and cellular organizations. He also served as editor of BellSouth Magazine and all other internal publications. Charles’ passion for telling the truth based on the employees’ enlightened self-interest gets the message across.
Doug Monroe – Manuscript Writing
Until recently, Doug Monroe was a senior editor of Creative Loafing, Atlanta’s alternative weekly, where he wrote a column called “Humbug Square,” in honor of Atlanta’s 19th Century gathering place for snake-oil salesmen and soap-box orators. A fifth-generation Atlantan, Doug is a former columnist and contributing editor for Atlanta magazine, and a former reporter, editor and columnist for United Press International and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is the author of “The Maverick Spirit,” a 45,000-word history of the Georgia-Pacific Corporation on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. One of the most gifted writers in the country, Doug can tell a story better than anyone.
Beth Penland – Message Strategy
Given the vast amount of information we are bombarded with every day, getting the right message to the right person at the right time is more important than ever. Beth develops creative and comprehensive strategies using traditional and social media for marketing campaigns, complex sales initiatives, corporate events and trade shows. In the past 15 years, Beth managed promotions for a major-market radio station, launched a technology start-up, oversaw brand and product marketing for a 14 billion dollar global corporation, and contributed to three Lonely Planet travel guides.
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