By Dr. Sarah Bonewits Feldner
NICK ASHOOH Jour ’76
Ashooh has seen the corporate communication field evolve, with executives beginning to understand the value of advance planning to address issues. “Communication now is at the table,” he says. “It is much more part of the planning process rather than the damage control process.” Ashooh credits Marquette’s program with giving him the skills he needed to be successful and strategic. After all, he came to the university with an interest in sports journalism.
Nick Ashooh was going to Milwaukee. He might as well have been going to the moon. Ashooh’s first time on an airplane was a trip to begin his undergraduate career at Marquette. When he landed, he found a place where the streets were laid out in a grid and just about everybody — even store cashiers — smiled and said hello. He wasn’t in New Hampshire any more, but he quickly came to regard Marquette as his home — and the place that laid the groundwork for a successful career in corporate communication. “It was exactly the right place because I got all the attention I needed,” he says. Ashooh, Jour ’76, is senior director of corporate and executive communication for APCO Worldwide, a global communication, stakeholder engagement and business strategy firm. Previously, he was in senior-level communication roles at Alcoa and the American International Group and managed communication for utility, public service and publishing companies.
diederich.marquette.edu
“No matter what you do, no matter what situation you get in, you need to think critically and observe the highest standards — and not just when someone is watching,” he says. In recent years, Ashooh has shared his expertise and experience with Diederich College students and faculty, serving on the advisory committee that helps plan the college’s annual Corporate Communications Summit, which draws to campus industry professionals and academics. “I am so excited about the college today,” he says. “To me, it is so much more. Its perspective is much broader. When we were there, you were going to work for a newspaper, a TV station or a magazine. That was pretty much it back then. Now, with the explosion of social media and digital media and how everything is integrated, I think Marquette is in a great position to be able to prepare people to do all those fields. And it’s a place that has values and cares about individuals.”
the grapevine
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