8/9/02

NEW YORKER NAMED DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY RELATIONS AT AUBURN

AUBURN -- Auburn University President William F. Walker announced the appointment on Friday of John E. Hachtel of the State University of New York at Binghamton as executive director of the Office of University Relations at AU.

Hachtel, who assumes the Auburn post on Sept. 3, has been associate vice president for university communications and marketing at the campus in central New York state since July 1998. The New York City native has worked in institutional communications and marketing in the Northeast since 1980.

Walker said the veteran communications executive emerged as the top choice for the position after a nationwide search by a committee of faculty, administrators, staff members, students and alumni. The committee was chaired by Daniel Bennett, dean of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction.

"John Hachtel has demonstrated a great deal of expertise and leadership in several areas that should have direct bearing on Auburn's ability to strengthen communication within the Auburn family and our marketing efforts with other constituencies over the next few years," said Walker. "We look for him to provide strong leadership to Auburn's communication and marketing efforts as we chart a course for the future."

University Relations is the primary communications office for AU and has 10 professional staff and three support staff members. Current units are the News Bureau, Multimedia Services and Photographic Services, which is a cost recovery unit.

Hachtel replaces Pete Pepinsky, who moved to the Office of Student Affairs in July 2001.

"I look forward to working with the faculty, administration, staff and others at Auburn to help the institution develop its communication and marketing capabilities to their full potential," said Hachtel. "Auburn has a good academic reputation on which to build, and it has many talented faculty and staff, with whom I hope to build close working relationships."

Hachtel said he recognizes that some Auburn constituencies have had conflicts with one another in the past. But, he said, it is possible for constituencies to disagree on immediate or past issues while finding common ground for longterm initiatives.

"Many people throughout the university seem eager to work toward improved communications with each other," he said. "I also sensed widespread interest in a movement toward using integrated marketing to reach external constituencies, especially national audiences. Both these indications are positive signs for Auburn."

At SUNY-Binghamton, Hachtel was the chief communications and marketing officer. He developed an integrated approach to communications and created and chaired a university-wide marketing oversight group. He supervised a staff of 23.

From 1993-98, Hachtel was director of media relations at the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus. From 1980-1991, he held public relations positions at medical and social service institutions in Pennsylvania. He began his career in 1978 as news director at a Pennsylvania radio station.

He holds a bachelor of arts in English from the University of Delaware and a master's degree in legal and ethical studies from the University of Baltimore.

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