Ownership

Mel Poole, Owner

Mel Poole is the founder and president of SponsorLogic, Inc.

With more than two decades of senior, national sponsorship experience, Poole is frequently interviewed as a sponsorship industry expert. His comments have appeared in The New York Times, Detroit News, Fortune magazine, USA Today, GolfWorld Business, New York Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dallas Morning News, Car & Driver magazine, Indianapolis Star, Lexington Herald-Leader, Indianapolis Business Journal, Charlotte Observer, SportsBusiness Daily, Bloomberg Business News, Dow Jones and Knight Ridder newswires, National Public Radio, Washington Times, Puget Sound Business Journal plus the Associated Press, Reuters and UPI news services.

He also wrote a regular column on marketing and sponsorship for more than 10 years for SportsBusiness Journal, the only national weekly publication in the U.S. that covers the business of sports.

Poole regularly participates in business gatherings as a panel moderator, keynote speaker and panelist.  He has hosted panels with guests such as senior marketing and sponsorship decision-makers from The Coca-Cola Company, MBNA, DuPont, Nestlé USA, Lance, Conseco, Titleist-Footjoy Worldwide, Merrill Lynch, Shell Oil, AOL, State Farm, Century 21, Goodwrench, Cheerios, Golf Magazine, Steuben, Chick-fil-A, Procter & Gamble, General Nutrition Centers and many other companies.

His experience behind the podium also includes leading a presentation on unorthodox sponsorship models for an organization representing the biggest trade shows in America, speaking to the Club Managers Association of America’s annual meeting of 3,000 private club executives, keynoting an address for PGA Tour tournament directors at the PGA Tour’s headquarters, presenting a webinar on sponsorship to hundreds of chapter executives from the National Association of Home Builders, presenting another webinar to the key sponsors of the National Apartment Association and conducting a full-day sponsorship seminar for a statewide gathering of the South Carolina Fair and Festival Association event executives.

He was also recently the lead presenter in the first Tradeshow Telesummit, which was organized by iconic tradeshow industry thought leader, Steve Miller. Poole spoke to the group about leveraging sponsorship as a lucrative new means of generating non-dues, non-advertising and non-exhibitor revenue while adding value to association members and protecting the integrity of members and associations.

Prior to founding SponsorLogic in 1997, Poole was one of four partners in the largest sports-marketing agency in Charlotte.  He successfully built, managed and measured national sponsorship, marketing and brand communication programs for Mercedes-Benz, Kraft Foods, Warner-Lambert, Mazda, Sears, John Deere, Western Auto, Square D, Reckitt Benckiser, Smithfield Foods, Post Cereals, Macmillan Publishing and many other companies.

Prior to that, he held the position of Director of Communications for Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc., sanctioning body of the PPG IndyCar World Series.  During his tenure at CART, the Indycar series lapped all other forms of motorsports in America in terms of media exposure, television viewership, live network television events, and ticket and merchandise sales, according to statistics compiled by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. A community outreach program Poole launched while at CART earned the Federal Bureau of Investigation Award for Exceptional Service in the Public Interest.

Prior to his Indycar experience, Poole was Director of Publicity at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the most forward-thinking and heavily promoted race track in the NASCAR industry.

Poole is a native of Atlanta and graduate of Georgia State University. He and his wife, Joyce, live on Lake Norman, north of Charlotte.

He is a member of the Founders Society of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the American Marketing Association, the Center for Public Integrity, the Golf Writers Association of America and the Authors Guild.

Personal bests include motorcycling across America in 5 days, listening to all 9 Beethoven symphonies in one sitting, owning a 1968 Shelby Mustang GT500 convertible and marrying Joyce – not necessarily in that order.