Bob Hetherington
Adjunct Professor
Contact Information
Research and Creative Interests
- Strategic Communication
- corporate communications
- communications ethics
- Crisis communication
- Integrated marketing communication
Biography
Bob Hetherington comes to The Media School as an MBA-equipped strategic communications consultant, a leader with national award-winning agencies and a distinguished investigative reporter. He teaches public relations classes.
Over the past 25 years, Bob has helped clients across industries and across America communicate effectively and efficiently across all media channels. He has helped clients: engage and move prospects to action; protect and enhance established brands and launch new ones; advocate and advance ideas to change public opinion, public behavior, and public policy. He has helped public companies connect with stakeholders and start-ups successfully share stories to raise capital. Among others, clients he has served include best-selling author Mark Greaney, Hoffmann LaRoche, International Paper, Memphis Grizzlies, National Medical Association, RWJ Foundation and the U.S. Navy.
Before he founded his own consultancy, Bob opened and led the Memphis office of Nashville-based MP&F Strategic Communications. He also served as public relations director for Memphis-based Chandler-Ehrlich. At both, he contributed to award-winning campaigns. At MP&F, awards included a Silver Anvil for a worker’s comp reform effort. At C-E, a public service campaign to promote public health earned a national Emmy.
Previously, he was business editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. There he recruited and led a diverse team at the state’s top metro daily. His initiatives drove sustained readership gains. Before moving into newsroom leadership, Bob was a reporter in Knoxville, Tenn., where his work with others resulted in a Pulitzer-Prize-nominated series which earned a National Headliner Award and a John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Economic Reporting, among other accolades.
Bob holds a BA from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Memphis. Through the years, he was active with the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW), the Economic Club of Memphis, the National Investor Relations Institute, Habitat for Humanity, and others. Presently, he is a member of the Indianapolis Public Relations Society.