Carole Minor: Recognizing 50 Years of IABC Membership

During IABC Houston's Bronze Quill Awards gala on June 12, the chapter celebrated a considerable milestone for one of its true pillars. Carole Minor, founder and president of Encore Communications, was honored for her 50th year of active IABC membership. Alice Brink, IABC Fellow, introduced Carole by reading remarks penned by longtime friend and colleague Ben Wheatley, APR, who could not attend the event. You can read Ben's tribute to Carole's remarkable career and achievements below.

You probably already know Carole Minor. Maybe you’ve run into her at an IABC/Houston chapter luncheon or an ESIG presentation or Bronze Quill Awards gala. One of the main reasons her name and image are so familiar is that she has been around—and an IABC member for 50 years. Carole is one of a few who has achieved this milestone.

Imagine that. In 1975 she took two major steps. She joined the chapter and landed her first communication job at Southwest Bancshares. She’d recently graduated from UT Austin and knew only one person in the profession in Houston—Susan Hedding, then president of IABC Houston.

“Turns out, she was the right person to know,” Carole recalls.

Those were days when corporate support for chapter memberships was enthusiastic. A world with no internet, email or cell phones, it was a time when communication was fueled by manual and electric typewriters and print publications. Communicators’ days were interrupted by scores of deliveries bearing galley type, publication proofs and other communication materials via courier. In fact, a whole industry of delivery people sprang up to support those in the vibrant Houston internal communication business.

Right away Carole’s career began to take off. Just two years later she left banking and hopped aboard Texas International Airlines. She spent the next 13 years in the airline industry, and she even stayed connected to IABC/Houston when she moved to Dallas as corporate communications director for American Airlines’ Sky Chefs subsidiary. In 1983 she returned to Houston as communications director for Continental Airlines (now United Airlines).

(For those keeping score, Carole was a member of the Dallas chapter for just two years. She’s spent the rest of those 50 years as an IABC/Houston member.)

Carole then founded Encore Communications in 1990, a full-service marketing communications and public relations firm. She specializes in strategic marketing planning and positioning, media relations, issues management, crisis response planning and implementation and a wide variety of written communication.

Clients have included AeroMexico, Anadarko, Boeing NASA Systems, Continental Airlines, Falcon Gas Storage Company, IBM, LNG Solutions Group, OpenLink, Ranger Steel, Sapient, Stallion Oilfield Services, SunGard, Sybase, The Energy Authority, Ziff Energy Group and many others.

She was named the chapter’s Communicator of the Year for 1994-95; an honor that helped her win her first energy industry client. This was a time in Houston when dozens of communicators like her discovered they wanted to pursue the communication business as entrepreneurs. So, she and a handful of other communicators formed IABC/Houston’s Entrepreneurs Strategic Interest Group (ESIG) in 1992 to support entrepreneurs hungry to learn more about the business of running a business. Throughout the years she has led and co-led ESIG to help the group survive and thrive.

“I credit ESIG in helping IABC remain relevant for seasoned communicators like me,” she says. “And being a chapter member has opened a world of corporate communication contacts, which have proved invaluable to me and my clients over the years.

“For example, one of my clients in Florida needed to hire an internal communication director but had no idea how to price the position. Through contacts with the local chapter there I was able to determine market salary rates and pass them on to my client,” she adds.

During her career she has earned more than 40 awards for writing and communication programs, mostly from IABC, which have led to more business and new opportunities for her company.

In addition to her support of IABC, Carole has served as a member of the Advisory Board of Directors for Child Advocates, Inc. and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Oil & Gas Financial Journal.

Congratulations, Carole! We’re pleased to have you among us.