Philip Poole, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Associated Baptist Press and a veteran Southern Baptist communicator, has been named Executive Director of Communications at Samford University.
Poole will join Samford March 17 after four years in the executive management position with ABP, a national news and information service with 100 national and regional media outlets and 2,000 individual and institutional subscribers. ABP is headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla.
As a member of Samford's Division of University Relations, he will have executive responsibility for marketing, publications, public relations and denominational relations.
Poole joined ABP in January of 1999 with responsibility for daily administration, fundraising, marketing, human resources, budget planning and implementation. He also has served as coordinator of ABP's first national fund raising campaign.
Poole was Executive Assistant to the President of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., during 1994-98, with strategic planning, budget, denominational relations and other responsibilities including public relations and marketing.
He was Director of the Department of Public Relations for the Missouri Baptist Convention in Jefferson City, Mo., during 1988-94; Public Relations Specialist with the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville, Tenn., during 1984-88; and Director of Communications for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, during 1978-84.
A native of Sherman, Texas, Poole holds a B.A. degree in journalism from Baylor University and Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of North Texas.
He has been a frequent contributor to denominational and professional publications. He is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Public Relations Society of America, in which he has been Accredited since 1987.