PCI Promotes Three Senior Staff Members

CHICAGO (June 23, 2006) - Public Communications Inc. (PCI) announced today the promotions of three of its veteran staff members to vice president positions. Kathleen Boylan and Leigh Wagner have been appointed senior vice presidents, and Peter Barry has been promoted to vice president of the Chicago-based public relations firm.

Boylan, Wagner and Barry bring more than 50 years of corporate and public relations experience to the 43-year-old firm.

“An agency is only as good as its people, and we are grateful to Kathleen, Leigh and Peter for their commitment and professionalism,” said Dorothy Oliver Pirovano, president and chief executive officer of PCI.

Kathleen Boylan
With nearly 20 years of corporate and public relations agency experience, Boylan has managed a diverse roster of clients. Since joining PCI in 1991, she has managed communication campaigns for health care, sports and not-for-profit organizations including: University of North Carolina Health Care, Infectious Disease Society of America, American Headache Society, Medical Library Association, the British School of Chicago and Chicago Youth Centers. She also led the account team that managed the HIV/AIDS portfolio for GlaxoSmithKline, and has a depth of experience with infectious disease issues.

Boylan also has an extensive background in sports communications. She headed the account team that worked with the Chicago Bulls, supervising media and community relations for the closing of the Chicago Stadium and opening of United Center, Michael Jordan’s retirement, his return to basketball in 1995 and his departure from the Bulls.

Prior to joining PCI, Boylan was a senior public relations specialist at The Quaker Oats Company and managed marketing communications programs for Quaker U.S. Grocery Products division.

Leigh Wagner
Wagner joined PCI in 1988 and has specialized in public relations initiatives for health care associations such as the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) and the American Veterinary Medical Association.

For more than a decade, she has overseen the ACAAI’s Nationwide Asthma Screening Program, one of its largest public service campaigns, and has worked closely with the AAD on its skin cancer screening program conducted in partnership with Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Wagner’s corporate clients have included Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. and Baxter Healthcare Corporation. She has also managed communications on behalf of the University of St. Francis, Joliet, Ill., and Loyola University of Chicago.

Prior to moving into account management, Wagner was assistant director of PCI's media group, supervising national consumer and trade media relations projects.

Peter Barry
Barry, a 20-year-veteran of public relations and marketing communications, has been an integral member of PCI’s media relations and crisis communications/issues management teams since joining PCI in 1996.

Barry directs the media relations and marketing communication programs on behalf of the biotechnology firm FlowMedica, Inc. and the Union League Club of Chicago. He also provides ongoing crisis communications counsel and issues management to several other PCI clients. Barry has supervised programs for the Archdiocese of Chicago and its Catholic Schools, and the Chicago Yacht Club. He also managed multi-year public relations and marketing communications programs on behalf of the Industrial Development Board (IDB) for Northern Ireland and Pharmacia & Upjohn.

Before joining PCI, Barry served as a wire service reporter and copywriter for the City News Bureau of Chicago. He was also a broadcast news reporter for WJOB-AM, based in Hammond, Ind.

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Public Communications Inc., www.pcipr.com, is a full service, national public relations firm, based in Chicago and founded in 1963. The firm is known for its work in Chicago and nationally in health care and medicine, conservation, culture and entertainment, education and with corporations and not-for-profits, particularly professional associations. It has a significant practice working in issues management, crisis communications, branding and image. PCI was a founding member of the Worldcom Public Relations Group, www.worldcomgroup.com, the world’s largest network of independently owned public relations counseling firms, with more than 100 offices in 133 markets on six continents.