Lester R. Potter, MBA, ABC, IABC Fellow, is Visiting Instructor in the Department of Mass Communication and Communication Studies at Towson University, Maryland. He is also a candidate for a doctorate in Instructional Technology at Towson.

Potter is President of LES POTTER INCORPORATED, an international consultancy he founded in 1998. His firm helps organizations worldwide use communication as a strategic management tool to boost organizational effectiveness. For over 30 years, Les Potter has improved business operation with innovative, results-oriented interventions. To solve clients’ problems, Potter draws on successful experience in organizational communication, strategic and marketing planning, and human resources and project management gained from work with a wide variety of organizations and industries. Les Potter’s background includes many different and enriching business situations that prepared him for successful client service today.

Potter was Chairman of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) during 1991-92. He was named an IABC Fellow in 1997, IABC’s highest honor. He served on IABC’s executive board, accreditation board, and as a trustee of the IABC Research Foundation. He earned IABC accreditation (the ABC designation) in 1978.

He is the author of The Communication Plan: The Heart of Strategic Communication (Second Edition), IABC’s top selling manual. A Spanish language version of this bestseller is currently being prepared by communication professionals and educators in Spain.

His second book, Business Management for Communicators: Beyond Strategic Communication, helps communicators be better business managers by understanding the principles and practice of business administration.

Potter has an especially close relationship with the communication profession and communicators in The Balkans and in Spain. In the Balkans, Potter has clients in Slovenia and works extensively with communication professionals in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Potter is an honorary life member of the Public Relations Society of Slovenia. He was featured speaker at the first conference for public relations ever held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Sarajevo in early 2004. In Spain, Potter is a Profesor Invitado at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca and was guest speaker at the closing conference for the 2003 Master en Comunicacion Corporativa y Gestion Estrategica del Conocimiento. His manual on strategic communication planning is used extensively in Spain, as well as Columbia University in the USA.

A Vietnam Era Veteran, he is a Life Member of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).              

Potter has an undergraduate degree in Communications from the University of Southern Mississippi (1970) and a Masters of Business Administration from Averett University in Virginia (1998).

Some organizations Les Potter has helped:

Adventist Health System

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists

AT&T

Binney & Smith, Inc

California Association of Public Information

Capital One Financial

Central and Southwest Services

Choice Hotels International

City Public Service - San Antonio

Council of Growing Companies

Deere & Company

Easter Seal Society

FannieMae

Federal Express Corporation

Freddie Mac

General Electric Company

Hallmark Cards

Hewlett Packard

International Paper

International Quality and Productivity Center, US and Australia

Lek Pharmaceutical Company, d.d., Ljubljana, Slovenia

Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital

Maine State Housing Authority

Media General, Inc.

Nordstrom

Ewing Marion Kauffmann Foundation

Marriott Corporation

National League of Cities

Nuclear Energy Institute

PaineWebber

Public Relations Society of Slovenia

Ragan Communications

SCORE Association

Sodexho Marriott Services

Symantec Corp.

Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Spain

US Postal Service

USAA

US Army Corps of Engineers