Community Programs

The Excellence in Public Relations Award

The Excellence in Public Relations Award is presented annually to a distinguished public relations practitioner who has spent the majority of his or her career in Kentucky.

Rod Wenz retired as Chairman and CEO of The Wenz-Neely Company, a Louisville-based public relations firm that served such clients as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dollar General Corporation and the Louisville International
Airport.

Wenz-Neely was Kentucky’s largest PR firm when it was sold to Shandwick, a
British company, in 1989. Shandwick ultimately became part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, the world’s largest advertising and public relations organization. Wenz continued to serve as CEO of Kentucky operations through 1994. The company’s successor firm now functions under local ownership as the New West Agency.

Rod was business editor of The Courier-Journal in the late 1960s before joining
Randy Neely in 1971 to form the public relations firm. Prior to that, Wenz served as Chrysler Corporation’s public relations representative in Illinois.
In the 1960s, he covered city and county government and organized crime as a
reporter for the Rockford (IL) Register-Republic, and served as its Belvidere (IL) bureau chief. Earlier he served as city editor of the Fremont Guide and Tribune in Nebraska after attending the University of Nebraska School of Journalism.

Wenz graduated from the Leadership Kentucky program in 1986 and served on the Board of Directors of the Kentuckiana Chapter, University of Nebraska Alumni Association. He passed away November 19, 2008, soon after receiving the Excellence in Public Relations award.

Randy Neely began his career in 1966 as a public information specialist with NASA in Huntsville, Alabama, as the Saturn V rocket was being developed and tested to send American astronauts to the moon. He later joined Nashville-based Holder-Kennedy & Co., working on the firm’s KFC account. When KFC relocated from Nashville to Louisville, he was transferred in 1969 to Louisville
to open an H-K office, and in 1970 relocated to Richmond, Virginia to open another office. Returning to Louisville in 1971, he and Rod Wenz, former business editor of The Courier-Journal, founded The Wenz-Neely Company. The firm grew to become the largest public relations firm in Kentucky and one of the leading firms in the southeast. Wenz and Neely also founded Kentucky Business Ledger, the state’s first business newspaper, which they later sold.

As a counselor, Randy primarily was involved in media relations, environmental affairs, community relations, issue management and in developing internal and external communication programs. His clients included companies in health care, distilling, fast food service, chemical production, tobacco, banking, law, public accounting, and energy.

After Wenz-Neely was acquired by Shandwick, he joined the College of Business at the University of Louisville and for 10 years was an Executive in Residence, working on marketing communication for the college. Randy retired in 2006, completing a 40-year public relations career.

Randy is a native of Nashville and a journalism graduate of the University of
Tennessee.

 

Jay Rayburn, APR, CPRC, Ph.D., Fellow PRSA is head of the public relations and advertising division in the Department of Communication at Florida State University.

Jay began his academic career at the University of Kentucky in 1975. He was a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication for one year, and a visiting assistant professor in the School of Journalism for one year before being hired on a regular line in 1977. During his time in the School of Journalism, he taught undergraduate courses in public relations and mass communication law, and graduate courses in research methods and media uses and gratifications. He also team-taught a mass media law course in the College of Law with Dwight Teeter, Director of the School of Journalism.

Jay taught for one year at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida before joining the faculty in the Department of Communication at Florida State in 1985. Now in his 23rd year at FSU, he heads the division of public relations and advertising where he teaches undergraduate courses in public relations principles, public relations techniques, public relations research, and public relations management. On the graduate level, he teaches courses in assessing organizational communication, communication research methods, and consulting. In 1999 he was given a University Distinguished Teaching Award.

During his career, Jay has served as a member of the editorial boards of Communication Research, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media and Journalism Monographs, and on editorial review panels for Random House, Wadsworth Publishing and Gilford Publishing. He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen publications in academic journals, chapters in three scholarly books, and numerous articles in professional publications. He is also a nationally recognized speaker on various topics including communication research methodologies, strategic communication planning, and conducting communication effectiveness studies. He has served for the past 12 years on the professional development faculty of the Public Relations Society of America where he teaches seminars on building and evaluating effective employee communication programs.

In addition to his teaching and research activities, Jay spends much of his time conducting research and counseling corporations, governmental organizations, institutions of higher education, and not-for-profit organizations.

Rayburn is a past state president of the Florida Public Relations Association, a former chairman of the North American Public Relations Council, the Founding Chairman of FPRA’s Counselors’ Network, a member of the Universal Accreditation Board for public relations accreditation, and an active member of the Public Relations Society of America. He holds the APR (Accredited in Public Relations) from PRSA, and the Certified Public Relations Counselor (CPRC) from FPRA. This year he received the Circle of Gold Award for service to Florida State University from the FSU Alumni Association.

In his spare time, Jay enjoys trying to play golf (especially with Tom and Matt Preston), antiques auctions, and following the fine art market. He is married to Rebecca Humphreys Rayburn, a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a B.A. in English and an M.A. in communication.

 

2006 James M. Wiseman, TEMA

James M. Wiseman is Vice President for Corporate Affairs at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA), located near Cincinnati in Erlanger, Kentucky.

Mr. Wiseman joined Toyota in 1989 and managed the statewide public affairs program for Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, located in Georgetown. In 1996, he led Toyota's public affairs department when its North American manufacturing headquarters was established in Erlanger. Today, Mr. Wiseman oversees Corporate Affairs for TEMA, a consolidation of Toyota's North American manufacturing and R&D companies in April 2006.

Prior to joining Toyota, Mr. Wiseman was president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. Previously, he was a sports writer for the Bowling Green (Ky) Daily News; taught English and was assistant football coach at Scott County (Ky) Junior High School; and was plant manager for Hansley Industries in Sweetwater, Tenn. He also served as general foreman for Bundy Tubing in Cynthiana, Ky.

A native of Milwaukee, Wis., Mr. Wiseman grew up in Bowling Green, Ky., where he attended grade school and high school. Mr. Wiseman is a 1974 graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., with a degree in English.

Mr. Wiseman has served on various community, state and regional boards, with a special interest in education initiatives. He is a former chairman of Leadership Kentucky, the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education, the Japan-America Society of Kentucky, the Kentucky Council on Economic Education and the Literacy Network of Greater Cincinnati. He has also served on the Executive Council of Kentucky's Prichard Committee for School Reform.

He currently serves on the boards of various other local, state, and national organizations such as the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

He lives with his wife in Cincinnati.

2005 Bernie Vonderheide, UK Public Relations

Bernie Vonderheide is truly a credit to the public relations profession. Over the years, he has earned the admiration and respect of his colleagues and, most significantly, members of the news media. When Mr. Vonderheide came to the University of Kentucky in 1974, he set a goal to turn the UK Public Relations Department into an aggressive media relations and marketing organization. As chairman of the UK Press, Radio and TV Committee, Mr. Vonderheide arranged for the University to receive free radio and television advertising time in all broadcasting contracts. At the time, UK was the only university in the country doing this on a statewide basis. Every major television market and more than 100 radio stations across the state ran the University's messages. Mr. Vonderheide was the halftime host on radio for all UK football and basketball games for 20 years. He did more than 800 halftime shows called "Campus Scene." It was the University's chance to reach thousands of Kentuckians with news about UK's academic accomplishments.

Even today, Mr. Vonderheide is best remembered for "Campus Scene." His work in other fields and as public relations director of the University still take a back seat to these halftime shows which were listened to with regularity by fans throughout Kentucky and many parts of the country. It is a bit ironic that this little bit of fame was in radio when all of Mr. Vonderheide's educational training and professional experience was in the print media. Mr. Vonderheide also played a key role in the development of the annual Joe Creason Lecture series endowed by the Louisville Courier-Journal . In fact, Mr. Vonderheide managed the annual event along with helping his close friend and colleague at the time, Don Towles, create the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. One of the most difficult challenges in public relations that Mr. Vonderheide encountered in his career at UK was the basketball scandal in the late 80s. Mr. Vonderheide was a member of a team of University executives led by UK President David Roselle who handled the UK response. This public relations effort worked and many UK alumni and fans came to better understand the problem and the solution. Mr. Vonderheide believes that, "the ending was what we wanted and the University was better off in its athletic programs because of the way we handled this problem." Before UK, he held positions at the Courier-Journa l and The Louisville Times, including director of the newspapers' promotion and public service department and he was a columnist for The Louisville Times for two years. He also has been editor of farm magazines in Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana.

In retirement, Mr. Vonderheide has been an active advocate for nursing home reform. He serves on the board of the Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency of the Bluegrass. He also is president and founder of Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, a citizen's advocacy group. His advocacy work helped form a task force on the state level to discuss quality long-term care and he single-handedly was able to get four bills to reform nursing home care introduced in the Kentucky General Assembly. A graduate of the Indiana University School of Journalism, Mr. Vonderheide and his wife, Barbara, have four grown children and 10 grandchildren.

2004 Lois Mateus, Brown-Forman

Kentucky has been a very important part of Lois Mateus' life since her childhood days growing up on her family's farm in Harrodsburg. After graduating from the University of Kentucky, Lois began her communications career in the public information office of state government. Her boss at the time was Jim Host, the current Commerce Secretary. She later edited the Journal of Kentucky Libraries and directed the Kentucky Historical Events Celebration Commission for the Commonwealth's 1976 observance of America's bicentennial.

If you asked Lois about the people who gave her counsel and advice over the years, she would first of all recall the influence of her mother. She would then identify two former Kentucky governors, Wendell Ford and John Y. Brown. "Wendell Ford allowed me access to meetings that a young woman would not ordinarily have access to. He would say, 'Listen and then write what you need to write.' John Y. Brown surrounded himself with lots of different people. He never thought to ask someone if they were a Democrat or a Republican." In 1978, after John Y. Brown was elected governor, Lois served as state Commissioner of the Departments of Tourism and Public Information and the Department of the Arts. From this position, she worked closely with Phyllis George Brown, promoting Kentucky's economic development and tourism programs, creating the Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation, and initiating the marketing program for arts and crafts that has developed into an important industry for the state. Following her years in the Brown administration, Lois joined Brown-Forman, one of Kentucky's oldest and most respected corporations. Today, she is a senior vice president, executive director of corporate communications and services at Brown-Forman. In addition to corporate services, brand homeplaces, and property management, Ms. Mateus is responsible for public relations, corporate communications, community relations, and contributions. She also serves on the board of Hartmann Luggage and is a member of the corporate executive committee. She was also involved in the restoration of Labrot & Graham Distillery in Versailles, Ky., the home of Woodford Reserve Single Barrel Kentucky Bourbon.

Ms. Mateus is president of the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, and serves on the boards of Kentuckians of New York, Leadership Kentucky, the International Association of Culinary Professionals Foundation, Issac W. Bernheim Foundation, Kentuckv Educational Television Foundation and the Warwick Foundation. She is a former State Historic Preservation Officer, member of the Kentucky Humanities Council, a charter member of the Kentucky Oral History Commission, and second vice president of the Kentucky Historical Society. Lois is married to Louisville businessman Tim Peters and together they operate a 750-acre organic farm near her childhood farm in Mercer County. They also maintain a home in Crescent Hill, a historic area near downtown Louisville.

2003 W. James Host, Host Communications, Inc.

Jim Host is chairman of Host Communications, Inc., which he founded in Lexington, KY in 1972. The company became a subsidiary of Bull Run Corporation in December 1999. Host began his career as a sportscaster in 1957 and was a play-by-play announcer of University of Kentucky football and basketball for the Kentucky Central Sports Network and WVLK-Radio. He joined Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati where he spent several years in marketing and sales. He returned to Lexington in 1964 and was involved with his own real estate, building and insurance companies until he entered politics in 1967.

At age 29, he became the youngest member of Kentucky Governor Louie Nunn's Cabinet as the commissioner of the Department of Public Information and then Commissioner of the Department of Parks where he worked to initiate the Kentucky Horse Park. He became the Republican Party's nominee for Lieutenant Governor, but lost in the general election. Host opened Jim Host & Associates in 1972. His first contract was with the Lexington Tourist and Convention Bureau, which led to the formation of the Lexington Center Corporation and the building of Rupp Arena. The company began rapid development in 1974 with two contracts, a basketball and football radio agreement with the University of Kentucky and an executive management relationship with the National Tour Association. The company has become nationally known for the administration of affinity, lifestyle, sports marketing and association management for universities, high school athletic conferences, associations and corporations. It was named one of the top five sports marketing companies in the world by SportsBusiness Journal in May 2000. Universities contracted by HOST include Boston College, Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi State, Purdue, Tennessee and Texas. The company has marketing agreements with the Metro Atlantic Athletic, Southeastern and Southern conferences.

Active in civic and charitable activities, Host has chaired many campaigns and has been associated with more than 40 organizations and boards. He has received a number of honors from myriad interests. Host, for example, in 2000 was named to the University of Kentucky Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame and the state of Kentucky's Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2001, he received one of Kentucky's top civic awards, Kentuckian of the Year by the Chandler Foundation. Host is past-chair of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce, and past-president of the Lexington Rotary Club and the Bluegrass Council of Boy Scouts. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and was awarded one of the University's first baseball scholarships. He played briefly in the Chicago White Sox system until an arm injury forced him to retire.

2002 John R. "Jack" Guthrie, Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations

Jack Guthrie is chairman and chief executive officer of Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations, one of the largest independently owned public relations firms in Kentucky. Jack started his public relations career with Philip Morris Inc. in New York in 1964. He returned to Louisville in 1971 to serve as executive vice president of the Kentucky Derby Festival and currently serves as an honorary director. Under his direction, the Festival grew ten-fold and achieved national prominence. Jack launched his own public relations firm in 1977. Over the years, the firm has served many major national and international corporations including Philip Morris, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, United Parcel Servie and Eli Lilly & Co. In 1987, Jack was one of the founding partners of The WORLDCOM Public Relations Group, the largest network of independent public relations firms in the world.

In 1978, he was named "Kentucky's Outstanding Public Relations Executive" by Western Kentucky University. He was Trinity High School's "Outstanding Alumnus of the Year" in 1981. In 1993, he was inducted into the Communicators Hall of Fame by the Public Relations Society of America. During 1995, Jack received several significant awards. He was named Man of the Year by the Louisville Ad Federation, presented with the distinguished Catholic School Alumni Award by the Archdiocese of Louisville and inducted into Trinity High School's Hall of Fame. Active in community affairs, Jack recently completed a six-year term on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees. In 1988, he was President of the UK National Alumni Association and currently (in 2002) serves as immediate past president of UK's School of Journalism Alumni Association.

Jack is the only public relations executive to have held the position of president of the Louisville Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He serves on numerous other community boards including Greater Louisville Inc. Jack has been a member of the Public Relations Society of America since 1966 and is active in the organization's Counselors Academy. He is also a member of the Louisville Rotary Club and numerous other organizations. A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Jack received a BA degree in Journalism in 1963. While a student at UK, Jack was editor of the Kentucky Kernel, the University's daily student newspaper. A member of Sigma Chi Fraternity, he was named a "Significant Sig" in 1996, the national fraternity's highest honor.

2001 Dan Lacy, Ashland, Inc.

Dan Lacy has forged a remarkable career in corporate and community relations. Dan Lacy joined the PR Department of Ashland Inc. in 1975. His vision and capacity for managing critical issues won him the Vice Presidency of Corporate Communications in 1986. Twelve years later, he became Vice President of Corporate Affairs and was tapped for Ashland's Executive Committee. Today, he's responsible for corporate philanthropy, employee/shareholder communications, event coordination plus community and media relations.

Chair-elect of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce (in 2001), his personal and professional reputations reach deeply into prestigious quarters. He serves The Conference Board's Communications Council, the Business Roundtable's Education Task Force and the American Petroleum Institute's General Committee of Communications. Instrumental in helping bring the First Amendment Center to UK, Dan may best be known for his involvement in Ashland's unprecedented support for education throughout the Commonwealth. He is a board member and past Chairman of the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education and is on the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

His significant role in Ashland's 1988 response to a major diesel fuel spill into the Monongahela River resulted in a Crisis Manager of the Year Award and two Harvard case studies. Hundreds of audiences have benefited from his public relations and crisis/emergency management lectures. A Morehead State University graduate and member of its Alumni Hall of Fame, Dan's professional contributions while living in Huntington sparked numerous advancements in West Virginia economic development, healthcare, and transportation. For these and other achievements, UK is proud to honor a most deserving individual whose outreach has brought notable credit to himself and one of America's great corporations.

2000 Thomas L. Preston, Preston Global

Tom Preston is a veteran of the Public Relations profession in both public and private sectors. A UK journalism graduate, Preston opened his Lexington PR company in 1968. The firm quickly became multi-disciplined in expertise and international in scope. Clients included CSX, Jefferson-Pilot, Ashland, Inc., Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Arch Mineral, the U.S. Selective Service, Florida Hospital, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Dow Corning, Air Product and Chemicals, Occidental Petroleum, and 3M.

Another client was the eventual majority whip of the U.S. Senate and former governor of Kentucky, the Honorable Wendell Ford. In 1971, Ford asked Preston to enter the governor's office on a four-month leave of absence from his firm. That "leave" became a four-year stint during which Preston served as the governor's special assistant, press secretary and commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Public Information. During this time Preston also served a stint as press secretary to Ford in Washington after he was elected U.S. senator.

Preston's distinguished achievements do not stop at corporate PR work and politics. In the 1980s, Preston developed a model for public relations contingency planning and response against terrorism and workplace violence. While many professionals initially dismissed the strategy, industry experts in the 1990s hailed Preston's company as one of the few firms outside of New York with a marquee crisis management function -- and one of the only with a terrorism sub-specialty. Preston now operates Preston Global, a company that focuses exclusively on management of and response to truculent crises for corporations, institutions and individuals. Preston is a UK fellow and the only native Kentuckian elected to the College of Fellows of the Public Relations Society of America.

If you would like to make a reservation to attend the luncheon on Nov. 4 honoring Mr. Vonderheide, please either print the invitation that follows and mail to Julie Berry at the address given, or telephone Ms. Berry at 859-257-1730. Reservations must be received and paid for by Friday, Oct. 28.

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