November 15, 2001 –
University Club
New York, NY
Bill Novelli is executive director and CEO of AARP, a membership organization of over 35 million people age 50 and older. He joined AARP in January 2000 as Associate Executive Director, Public Affairs.
Earlier, Mr. Novelli co-founded and was president of Porter Novelli, now one of the world’s largest public relations agencies and part of the Omnicom Group, an international marketing communications corporation. He directed numerous corporate accounts as well as the management and development of the firm. Porter Novelli was founded to apply marketing to social and health issues, and grew into an international marketing/public relations agency with corporate, not-for-profit and government clients. He retired from the firm in 1990 to pursue a second career in public service. He was named one of the 100 most influential public relations professionals of the 20th century by the industry’s leading publication.
He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. from Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, and pursued doctoral studies at New York University. He taught marketing management for 10 years in the University of Maryland’s MBA program and also taught health communications there. He has lectured at many other institutions. He has written numerous articles and chapters on marketing management, marketing communications and social marketing in journals, periodicals and textbooks.
Mr. Novelli serves on a number of boards and advisory committees. He and his wife, Fran, reside in Bethesda, Maryland. They have three adult children and three grandchildren.
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