TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - (Business Wire) Veteran Florida communicator Cindy O’Connell announced today that she has created a new consultancy to focus on two of her passions – sustainable environmental initiatives and higher education. An accomplished communications professional, O’Connell has served as Senior Vice President/General Manager for Hill & Knowlton’s Tallahassee office, which she opened for the firm five years ago. Previously, she was general manager for Weber Shandwick Tallahassee. Among her career highlights, O’Connell served on the executive start-up team for the Florida Lottery, launched the first statewide ATM network in Florida, and promoted Florida in three Olympic Games: the 1996 Centennial Games in Atlanta, the 1998 Nagano Winter Games in Japan, and the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.
“I have had wonderful experiences and have built a network of relationships that I cherish,” O’Connell said. “It’s exciting to now have an opportunity to apply my talents and contacts to objectives that I am personally even more passionate about.”
A nine-year member of the Board of Trustees for the University of Florida, O’Connell is the widow of former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen C. O’Connell, who served as UF president, 1967-73.
Cindy O’Connell also has led efforts to support and sustain Florida Blue Key, the University of Florida’s nationally renowned prestigious student leadership honorary organization. She was instrumental in the development of the Stephen C. O’Connell Supreme Court Reading Room, a facility at the heart of the newly expanded Lawton Chiles Information Center at the UF Levin College of Law.
O’Connell is also a graduate of Leadership Florida, and on the boards of Florida Tax Watch, The Florida Economics Club and the Florida House in D.C., the state’s embassy in the nation’s capitol started by former First Lady Rhea Chiles.
O’Connell also farms her 200 acre ranch in Leon County, using sustainable agricultural practices, and is a senior advisor to CCP Energy LLC, a renewable energy development company with research ties to several national universities, congressional districts and conservatories. O’Connell is advising CCP Energy with its Clean Community Partnership and Clean Community Sustainability Institute Programs, which focus on creating public private partnerships that foster the growth of green jobs and clean energy development.
While at H&K, O’Connell worked to restore the luster to two private colleges, Loyola in New Orleans and Dillard Universities’ after their campuses were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina providing crisis communication and rolling out a revitalized brand image to strengthen student enrollment numbers.
“I want to personally thank Cindy for her efforts in helping to officially plant the flag of H&K in Tallahassee and assisting in the ongoing growth of the firm statewide,” Hill & Knowlton General Manager Harry Costello.
For Cindy O'Connell
Michelle Ubben, 850-222-1996
