Ellen W. Hartman, APR, Fellow PRSA

Ellen Weaver Hartman, APR, Fellow PRSA, is president and CEO of Hartman Public Relations, based in Atlanta. Hartman has more than 30 years of experience in building strategic communications campaigns for some of the world’s most well known brands including Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Kraft, Popeyes, Avon Products, Arby’s, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Chili’s, Honeywell, tvsdesign and M & M Mars. In addition to consumer and business to business communications, she has expertise in corporate communications, social responsibility, media relations and crisis management. Her crisis work includes legal and labor issues, workplace violence, food borne illnesses, environmental disasters, product recalls and financial issues.

Prior to forming her own company, Hartman was president of the Atlanta office of Weber Shandwick and Fitzgerald PR, both units of the Inter Public Group (IPG), one the largest communication companies in the world.

She was also vice president and chief communications officer for AFC Enterprises, a $4 billion, public company and parent to Popeyes Chicken, Church’s Chicken, Cinnabon and Seattle’s Best and Torrefazione Italia coffees. A member of the 12-person executive team, Hartman reported to the chairman and CEO. While at AFC, Hartman managed all internal and external communications including the company’s IPO and investor communications, employee communications, diversity management, social responsibility and government affairs. Hartman also led a four-year communications initiative to help bring the company from bankruptcy to the top honor in the restaurant industry: “Operator of the Year.” As chair of AFC’s New Age of Opportunity Diversity Management program, she was instrumental in AFC’s selection by Fortune Magazine as the Third Best Company to Work for African Americans in 2001.

Previously, Hartman also was a senior vice president for Fleishman Hillard and Manning, Selvage & Lee and worked for The Coca-Cola Company in the area of financial communications.

A community leader for 25 years, Hartman serves on the Board of Counselors for The Carter Center, as well as the boards of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving, Women’s Forum of Georgia, Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, founded by Jane Fonda, Les Dames d’Esoffier/Georgia, Georgia State University’s School of Hospitality, Elon University’s School of Communications and the Public Relations Society of America/Georgia Chapter where she served as the 2001 president. She is an accredited member of PRSA, and was inducted into the PRSA College of Fellows in 1998 and the Chapter’s Order of the Phoenix in 2006. PRSA/Georgia Chapter recognized Hartman’s achievements in 1997 with the Dyar Massey Award for service to PRSA and the Georgia Goodwin Award for community service in 2001. She was awarded the Paul Lund Award for Community Service by national PRSA in 2008.

Hartman is a 1990 graduate of Leadership Atlanta. Additionally, she is a member of the Arthur Page Society for senior level communication professionals, International Women’s Forum, Les Dames de Escoffier, the Women’s Foodservice Forum and the Multi-Cultural Foodservice Hospitality Alliance.

A native of Starkville, MS, Hartman graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.