New West Makes Key Moves
New West, one of the region’s largest full service public relations, marketing and advertising firms, is growing the roles of two key executives to better serve clients and the agency.
Tom Kokai takes over as Chief Operating Officer and expands his duties to include the supervision of all staff and oversight of account service management, in addition to his role as Creative Director.
Joe Lilly becomes Executive Vice President will take an expanded role in new business development. He will assume an even greater role as PR strategist on all accounts —current clients and new business.
Tom Howell ‘s title will change to Principal/President and Becky Simpson’s title will remain Principal/CEO.
According to Becky Simpson, Principal/CEO of New West, the new organizational structure will help the agency to be more efficient, add client services, market more effectively and provide room for growth for others in the organization as the firm continues to grow.
Tom Kokai has over 25 years of experience in advertising from both the creative and the account supervision side for a wide range of clients including travel, tourism, attractions, entertainment, healthcare, financial, consumer and business-to-business products. Prior to joining New West in 1998, he worked at Doe-Anderson as a Vice President/Account Supervisor.
“Tom is well respected for his skills as a keen strategist, a talented writer and creative supervisor,” said Becky Simpson, CEO of New West. “In his new role we will tap into his broad experience managing people and accounts.”
Joe Lilly brings to New West more than 25 years of experience in communications, broadcast journalism, legislative affairs and marketing. Prior to joining New West in 1998, Lilly served as press secretary to Kentucky Governor Brereton C. Jones, communications director for the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and executive producer at WAVE-TV News in Louisville.
