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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.
Donohue
has been at the heart of numerous Olympic Games and Super Bowls, working
closely with organizers, sponsors and print and electronic media. His recent assignments include: Information Officer, 2007 Pan Am Games,
Brazil and Broadcast Information Director, 2006 Torino, Italy Olympic
Winter Games; he was responsible for writing and distributing hundreds of
time-critical News Bulletins 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. He was
responsible for managing the backstage area where athletes - including
gold medalist Sarah Hughes - met broadcasters from around the world for
interviews. Over the span of the Games Donohue accommodated more than
3,000 reporters and production personnel at the Salt
Lake Ice
Center.
From
1998 to 2001 Donohue served as Director, Marketing Communications &
Events for Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewer. He was responsible
for creating and implementing publicity and event strategies supporting
A-B's leading brands including Budweiser, the world's #1 beer 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 Brian
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, 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 handled the training and deployment of field
advance teams for BMW's "Signature Car" leading the 1996
Olympic Torch Relay, a 13,000-mile, cross-country event featuring more
than 250 local signing ceremonies. 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 African 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"
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 10,000-mile 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, the
world's largest p.r. firm. 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 College. He was also a newspaper reporter in New
Jersey.
Donohue
lives in northern New Jersey with his wife and two adopted dogs.
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