Effective communications are key to a corporation's turn-around

MCI's well-crafted and expertly executed communications effort helped bring the company back from the brink and has earned two of their public relations executives top honors from the world's largest professional organisation for public relations practitioners.

For their roles in leading the effort to help rebuild MCI's corporate reputation, Grace Chen Trent and Brad Burns have been named Public Relations Professionals of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Trent, senior vice president of communications and chief of staff, and Burns, senior vice president of public relations, were both honored at PRSA's 2004 Silver Anvil Awards Ceremony held this week at the Equitable Tower in New York City.

Demonstrating his strong commitment to public relations and the employees of MCI, Capellas was on hand at the ceremony to make the surprise presentation to Trent and Burns. "Grace and Brad both performed exceptionally well during this challenging period," said Capellas. "They were on the front lines orchestrating the kinds of effective communications programs that helped enable MCI to rehabilitate itself and restore our stakeholders' trust in our company."

MCI's rebuilding process was anchored by Capellas' highly visible "100-Day Plan", which set the tone for the company's relatively quick emergence from Chapter 11. A major component of the 100-Day Plan was a complete internal communications plan, including a newly designed employee website, "TeamNet", which was updated daily with a song, picture and banner of the day. More importantly, this site opened another line of communication between employees and the company's senior leadership. Other internal communications efforts included Capellas' meeting with employees and management team members at 21 major MCI sites and facilitating five interactive webcasts for employees worldwide.

The Public Relations Professional of the Year Award, initiated in 2000, represents the highest achievement in the practice of public relations by an individual(s) in a given year. The recipient(s) must have shown outstanding leadership and management skills by establishing a mutually beneficial relationship between an organisation and the public upon whom its success or failure depends. Past recipients of the award include Victoria Clarke (2003), Tim Doke (2002), James E. Murphy (2001) and Rick Kaufman, APR (2000).

MCI, Inc, is a leading global communications provider, delivering innovative, cost-effective, advanced communications connectivity to businesses, governments and consumers. For more information, go to www.mci.com.