He is the Chairman of the Arts and Business Partnership of Southern New Jersey and a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the Southern New Jersey Development Council, which he serves as Director of Policy and Programs.
A former Emmy-winning television news and public affairs producer for Group W Television (KYW-TV and Satellite News Channel) and award-winning reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Michael is a graduate of Leadership New Jersey’s Class of 2001.
He has been honored as the Philadelphia Ad Club’s Marketing All-Star, as the recipient of both the Fulginiti Award and the DeAnn White Award for Community Involvement, presented annually by the Philadelphia chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and as the recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Scales of Justice Award.
In addition, his public relations work has been recognized with more than a dozen Pepperpot Awards from the Philadelphia Chapter of PRSA.
This year Michael has been selected as the recipient of the (New Jersey) Governor’s Volunteer Award for the Arts, the Chairman’s Award presented by the Southern New Jersey Development Council, and recognized—for the second time—for “outstanding corporate philanthropy” in the arts by the Community Foundation of New Jersey.
He has also been honored as a recipient of the Applause Award for Arts Advocacy by the Markheim Art Center selected as the recipient of an inaugural Business/Arts Hero Award presented at the First Annual Regional Business/Arts Summit by the Arts & Business Partnership of Southern New Jersey, the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey, the Coopers Ferry Development Association, and the South Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Prior to forming WMSH Marketing Communications in 1997 and WTG Marketing Communications in 1999, he served as Executive Vice President for Marketing of The Star Group, directing all of the firm’s public relations activities and serving as Chairman of that firm’s Plans Board, composed of the agency’s senior managers.
Michael began his marketing communications career at Kal, Ehrlich & Merrick, then the largest agency in Washington, D.C. He later created the public information office for the nation’s fourth largest court system, and directed the statewide media and public relations effort in Pennsylvania for a successful presidential re-election campaign.
A graduate of Fordham University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Michael has taught at the collegiate and professional levels, where his courses have included Copywriting, Creative Concepts, Management, Advertising, Business Law, Journalism, and Marketing.
He has also served as a member of the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Advertising Studies, which is presented annually by the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As).
He serves as a Trustee of ArtPride/New Jersey and as a member of the Boards of the South Jersey Performing Arts Center, the Haddonfield Little League, and Haddonfield Youth Football.
He is a member of the Rutgers Leadership Council, co-chair of the Rutgers CEO Forum, and a member of the ad hoc “Camden Leaders” coalition that has been established by the Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs.
He serves as a member of the Communications Committee of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and has also served as a member of the National Public Relations Committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
Michael is a co-author of the Southern New Jersey Development Council’s 2002 Regional Development Plan and a co-author of the first published study of the creation of a federal cabinet-level housing agency, Praeger Publishing’s 1967 The Department of Housing and Urban Development. He is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Public Relations Society of America, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Marketing Association, and national, state, and local bar associations and healthcare marketing organizations.
“You’ve seen and heard the famous trilogy: ‘Better. Faster. Cheaper.’ It’s what the conventional wisdom says that every client wants. And you’ve have probably been told that it’s only possible to get two of the three. That’s agency-talk for ‘you can’t have it all.’ At WMSH, we look at it a little differently. We believe that if you’re smarter about crafting and communicating your messages, you can have it all. We help our clients understand that there is a fourth choice: Smarter. We believe that if we and our clients work ‘smarter,’ we can and will produce work that is better, faster, less expensive, and more effective!”
–Mike Willmann