Mary Beth West

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT MARY BETH WEST

Based in Maryville / Greater Knoxville, Tennessee, Mary Beth West, FPRCA, is a public relations executive with nearly 30 years of award-winning experience managing communications strategies and campaigns, with significant business results in meeting sales, development, branding and reputation-management objectives. A founding member of the London, U.K-based Public Relations & Communications Association (PRCA) Ethics Council, she is a contracted senior strategist for Knoxville, Tennessee-based Fletcher Marketing PR and periodic co-host of the firm\'s #MsInterPReted podcast. She currently serves on the board of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), a forum for senior management of the world’s best PR consultancies to meet and address issues of mutual interest and concern. In her career – including a 15-year consulting practice that she founded, grew and later sold in January 2018 to Fletcher Marketing PR – Mary Beth’s leadership has forged her reputation as a bold and outspoken advocate for communications ethics, business integrity, and whistleblower issues. Her insights have been included in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, the USA Today Network, Business Insider, PRweek, PR News, The Public Relations Strategist and other business publications. In fall 2012, Mary Beth led her team in its own recovery effort from an office fire that completely destroyed the firm’s facilities, requiring an eight-week displacement of staff and relocation process, as well as total redevelopment of the firm’s infrastructure. In the year following the fire, she managed a growth surge in the firm’s client base of some 300 percent over a 24-month period. Mary Beth was named the University of Tennessee / College of Communication & Information\'s Public Relations Alumna of the Year in fall 2013 - the first time the College presented the honor. Nearly 20 years prior, she was named the College\'s Public Relations Student of the Year. Mary Beth also was honored in 2022 among global PR professionals in the first international cohort of inductees into the PRCA Fellows (FPRCA). She is involved in numerous charitable giving and philanthropic endeavors, including the new Business Integrity Library of ESG best-practices compiled by the Washington, D.C-based Ethics & Compliance Initiative. Mary Beth also serves on the community advisory board of First Horizon Bank, for which its bank holding company (NYSE: FHN) is one of the top-50 largest in the U.S.