Incoming chapter officers are urged attend the Nov. 2 district Leadership Rally in Charlotte. Mitch Edwards, district chair-elect, announced that keynoters will include national PRSA leaders Philip Tate and Reed Bolton Byrum. Tate will be the opening speaker. Byrum will be the luncheon speaker.

Opening Speaker: Philip Tate, APR, Fellow PRSA
Daytime Job: Senior Vice President of Luquire George Andrews in Charlotte, N.C.

Topic: Leading and Managing Your Board Tate will give you time-tested tools and ideas for effective leadership with your local PRSA chapter. This interactive session will cover the demands of leadership, how to build an effective team and why you should empower your board to ensure long-term chapter success.

About Philip… Philip Tate, APR, Fellow PRSA, is Senior Vice President for Luquire George Andrews (LGA), a full-service communications firm in Charlotte, N.C., that focuses on the marketing, advertising and public relations needs of private and publicly held companies.

Since joining LGA in 1992, Tate has managed award-winning integrated marketing initiatives for many of the agency’s leading clients, including 3A Composites, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Blum, Lincoln Harris, National Gypsum, Syska Hennessy Group and the Carolina Panthers. The resulting campaigns have earned Best in Show and Crown Awards from the Charlotte Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and garnered numerous local, regional and national ADDY Awards from the American Advertising Federation (AAF). More recently, he worked on the team that brought the 2012 Democratic National Convention to Charlotte and remains actively involved in the agency’s new business initiatives.

Tate has just completed consecutive terms as treasurer on the national board of directors for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Prior to that, he served as the Southeast district director on the PRSA national board. Last month, he was inducted into the PRSA College of Fellows during the 2012 PRSA International Conference in San Francisco.

Tate has held numerous leadership positions in the PRSA Charlotte Chapter, including serving as president in 2006. In 2010, he received the Infinity Award from the PRSA Charlotte Chapter for representing the highest standards of character, career and service. In 2002, he received his Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the Universal Accreditation Board and remains deeply involved in the PRSA Charlotte Chapter accreditation program.

Away from the office, Tate has served as volunteer chair for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte Y-Guides Program, a father-child program for more than 3,000 families, which ranks as one of the largest programs of its kind in the U.S. He also has spearheaded local fundraising campaigns for the American Heart Association, National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the YMCA of Greater Charlotte.

Tate graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a double minor in political science and history. When he is not spending time with his wife, Brenda, and their two daughters, Meredith and Morgan, Philip enjoys playing basketball and softball, reading, gardening and answering sports, music and movie trivia questions.

Luncheon Speaker: Reed Bolton Byrum, APR, Fellow PRSA
Daytime Job: Chair of the Byrum Innovation Group, Greenville, SC

Topic: Taking Your Chapter and Yourself National
Byrum will focus on raising the engagement of chapter members and officers in the national dialog of the profession and PRSA.

About Reed… Reed Bolton Byrum, APR, Fellow PRSA is a leading corporate strategist in dealing with such critical issues as reputation, positioning, governance, and social media.

Byrum is expert at positioning services firms and small- to mid-cap companies in the financial markets and commercial marketplaces.

A frequent lecturer and author about corporate public, marketing and investor communications, Byrum, former president and CEO of the now-32,000-member Public Relations Society of America, has served as a corporate executive for companies, ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 100, like EDS and GE Capital, and as a senior consultant to global and regional agencies.

Byrum is past president of the South Carolina Public Relations Society of America, a former member of the Executive Committee of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, and has been elected to the global College of PRSA Fellows.

A leader in the development of high-technology communications, Byrum has been selected by PR Week as one of the top public relations executives in high technology. Having started his career as an award-winning journalist for five newspapers and a wire service, he has taught a senior seminar in strategic communications at the University of Texas and is a member of the University of South Carolina-Upstate Foundation. A Washington and Lee University graduate, Byrum is a former award-winning journalist for five newspapers and a wire service and a director for Gannett during the introduction of USA TODAY.

Byrum has been a leading industry spokesperson for the profession and industry about governance, ethics and the First Amendment at such venues as the United Nations, the Global Alliance in Rome, the PR Alliance, The Conference Board, and The Strategic Communications Institute. The Austin Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America has recognized him for career achievement.