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BIOGRAPHY
Joseph M. Donohue
Founder & President
EventSavvy
www.event-savvy.com
During a career
spanning more than three decades, Joe Donohue has created, managed,
presented and publicized award-winning events for some of the biggest
companies and sporting organizations in the world.
In 2008, Donohue joined the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign for
Change, serving as a Deputy Field Organizer in Adams County, PA. He conducted door-to-door canvassing
and telephone outreach, making contact with thousands of eligible voters
throughout the county. He also helped train, mentor and motivate more
than 200 volunteers over a six-week period, culminating in Obama’s
decisive victory in Pennsylvania.
This victory contributed significantly to Obama’s successful bid to become the
44th President of the United States.
Donohue has been at the heart of numerous Olympic Games and Super
Bowls, working closely with organizers, host broadcasters, sponsors and
print and electronic media. His recent assignments include: 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games - Coordinating Producer, Olympic News Channel; Logistics
Deputy/Launch, 2008 NCAA football coaches goodwill tour to military
personnel stationed in the Middle East; Information Officer, 2007 Pan Am
Games, Brazil; Broadcast Information Director, 2006 Torino, Italy Olympic
Winter Games. Donohue was responsible for writing and distributing
hundreds of time-critical News Alerts & Schedules to thousands of
Rightsholding Broadcasters in the respective International Broadcast
Centers.
In
2005 Donohue was called to provide logistical and technical support in
the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (USA). For two months he
helped manage technical components in five "tent cities" housing
thousands of utility workers restoring power, water and communications in
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Donohue and these task teams helped
millions of people and thousands of businesses over an area spanning
90,000 square miles.
In 2004 he was
retained by Athens Olympic Broadcasting, host broadcaster for the 2004
Athens Olympic Games, to manage two pivotal areas - Broadcaster
Information and Aquatics Venue - Athlete Media Interviews. Donohue
coordinated the development and distribution of logistical and scheduling
information to more than 14,000 Broadcasters working in the Athens
International Broadcast Center in July-August 2004. At the Athens
Aquatics Venue he served as Chief Liaison Officer, managing the Broadcast
Mixed Zone - an area where athletes met TV crews from around the world
for brief live and taped interviews.
In
2002 Donohue served as Chief Liaison Officer - Figure Skating & Short
Track Speed Skating - at the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games. Over the
span of the Games Donohue accommodated more than 3,000 reporters and
production personnel at the Salt Lake Ice Center.
Donohue
also analyzed broadcast coverage of the 2002 FIFA World Cup (Japan/Korea)
and developed forward-looking recommendations for current and potential
international sports sponsors.
From
1998 to 2001 Donohue served as Director, Marketing Communications &
Events for Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. He was
responsible for creating and implementing publicity and event strategies
supporting A-B’s leading brands including Budweiser and Bud Light, the
USA’s best-selling light beer. Brand support programs included "Bud Bowl"
the company’s annual presence at the Super Bowl, in the host cities of
San Diego, Miami, Atlanta and Tampa. Donohue also created
Anheuser-Busch’s sponsorship execution plan around the 2002 Olympic
Winter Games. He produced presentations of the Budweiser Cup to
record-setting hot-air balloon pilots Bertrand Picard and Alan Jones in
Geneva, Switzerland, and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in
Washington, DC, and designed annual media sneak previews to publicize
Budweiser’s Super Bowl TV commercials, which were voted #1 by USA Today four consecutive years.
Prior
to being retained by Anheuser-Busch InBev, Donohue was Vice President,
Special Projects for Cohn & Wolfe, one of the country’s leading
event-marketing firms. His roles included developing event and public
relations strategies capitalizing on the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Donohue served as Executive Producer for the Sara Lee/Hanes Olympic
T-shirt Auction, a 500-day campaign that raised more than $1 million for
local charities. He also trained field staff supporting the BMW
"Signature Car" cross-country ceremonies in advance of the ‘96 Olympic
Torch.
He
served as Senior Liaison to the Istanbul, Turkey, 2004 Olympic Games bid,
producing the city’s presence strategy in Atlanta during the ‘96 Games
and managing preparations for a site visit by the International Olympic
Committee in October 1996. He created the tactical plan for Coca-Cola’s
sponsorship of the Cup of Nations, a soccer tournament held in Burkina
Faso, Africa. Donohue also produced the national rollout and mobile
exhibit and event tour for UtiliCorp United’s "EnergyOne" brand.
Donohue
served as Vice President-Events for Whittle Communications, the country’s
leading placed-based advertising company, from 1992 to 1995. He managed
Coca-Cola’s "Big TV" - four days of original programming broadcast live
from downtown Atlanta - and "Block & Tackle" - Coke’s
free-to-the-public interactive fan festival -during Super Bowl XXVIII;
created a 50-city mobile exhibit tour for Kodak’s Kodalux brand; and
conducted site surveys in 65 cities and towns in Spain, France and Italy
for a potential professional baseball league.
In
the early 1990s Donohue helped expand the NCAA Corporate Partners program
for Host Communications, where he also built and sold a sponsorship and
public relations campaign around the Southeastern Conference (SEC)
Football Championship Game, the first Division 1-A title game in the
country.
From
1985 to 1990 Donohue was Vice President-Consumer Accounts at Cohn &
Wolfe in Atlanta, where he supervised the Coca-Cola and Turner
Broadcasting (TBS) Goodwill Games accounts. In this capacity he was
responsible for promoting and publicizing all of Coca-Cola’s brand
marketing campaigns, including presence at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games
in Calgary, Canada. There he managed Coca-Cola’s International Pin
Trading Center and the Coca-Cola "World Chorus" 50 young singers flown in
to perform at the Games’ Opening Ceremonies. He also managed Coca-Cola’s
sponsorship of "Hands Across America" a one-day, 2.4 million human chain
formed between New York and Los Angeles to raise awareness about hunger
and homelessness in America. Donohue hired and managed a communications
team tasked with promoting Ted Turner’s 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle.
He delivered presentations and staged events around the world, including
a seven-country teleconference; represented The Games at an international
sportswriters’ conference in the Congo Republic (formerly Zaire); and
participated in international sports meetings in Japan, South Korea,
England and Canada. Donohue also created and staged the Kodak/Goodwill
Games "World’s Largest Photo Album" competition and presentation to the
Governor of Washington.
Additional
management roles at Cohn & Wolfe included: Publicity Liaison to the
1988 Democratic National Convention; Senior Communications Director of
the "San Diego Arts Festival: Treasurers of the Soviet Union’s
exhibition"; Co-producer of Amoco Corporation’s Centennial Celebration;
Field Producer of Ford’s "Quality Celebration" featuring the world debut
of the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable cars; and Associate Producer of the
Federal Express "Celebration of Medal Winners" nightly ceremony at the
Calgary Olympic Games.
In
1983-84 Donohue served as Field Advance-Media Director for the Los
Angeles Olympic Torch Relay. He drove the 10,000km cross-country route,
securing preparatory interviews and events in more than 65 cities and
accredited more than 3,000 print and broadcast news media.
From
1980-82 Donohue served as Director of Promotions for the New York Mets
professional baseball club. He was responsible for creating and
introducing a live entertainment component on the field before and after
games, and sold more than 75 giveaway days to sponsors.
Donohue
began his event public relations career with Burson-Marsteller, one of
the world’s largest P.R. firms. In 1979 he was Field Director for Burger
King’s "Pitch Hit & Run" youth program for Major League Baseball,
featuring a 20-city tour with Hall of Famer Sparky Anderson. He also
managed and publicized Gillette’s sponsorship of MLB’s All-Star
Balloting. He served as associate director for Burger King’s "VIP Night
on Broadway" one of the country’s first cause-marketing events which
raised funds for the New York City Police Department’s bulletproof vest
campaign.
Before
entering the event/P.R. field Donohue served as Public Information
Officer at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland. He was also a
newspaper reporter in northern New Jersey.
Donohue
lives in New Jersey with his wife and two adopted dogs.
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