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Donell Creech

transmedia entrepreneur | Marketing and Advertising

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Donell Creech's Bio:

Donell Creech's Experience:

• founding partner + director of marketing at urban music festival

  March 2005 - October 2011

  urban music festival is an outdoor family-oriented music festival held in the heart of austin along the banks of town lake at auditorium shores. each year, umf will begin the first friday of april to coincide with the annual texas relays weekend. (the texas relays is a 75 plus year old university of texas track and field tradition that attracts competing teams and athletes from all over the u.s.) the relays weekend currently attracts 40-60,000 people for the track meet, plus tens of thousands more who come specifically for the diverse entertainment options. its economic impact -- $37.5 million over the 3-day weekend -- is on par with both south by southwest and the austin city limits music festival. more than just another festival, umf offers an opportunity to strengthen and enhance austin's african american community. the event serves as an anchor point for a quality of life initiative designed to entice more african americans to visit, relocate, and ultimately, consider moving to austin. our objectives include: o generate projected levels of revenue that will support self-funded maintenance and growth. o create a weekend that offers a festive atmosphere which is both fun for the family and encourages healthy cultural expression for all generations. o raise the profile of austin among african americans on a state, regional and national level. o establish a marquee weekend that becomes a staple event for the city of austin. long-term, this will positively affect the quality of life for austin's african american population. o increase overall attendance during the weekend by 25%. i sold my interest to my 2 co-founders in 2011 and urban music fest continues on today.

• director of development at huston-tillotson university

  August 2004 - April 2005

  direct report to the vp of development in leading and managing the fundraising efforts of the university.

• founding board chair and president at austin area heritage council

  January 1995 - January 2002

  austin's martin luther king, jr. celebration began in 1983, and was planned and sponsored by the texas union african-american culture committee (aacc), university of texas at austin. in 1993, aacc joined with huston-tillotson college and in 1994, the two colleges worked with community-based service organizations giving birth to the first city-wide mlk celebration. in june of 1995, the austin area heritage council was officially formed to oversee planning of austin's annual martin luther king day celebrations. to create a more inclusive and family atmosphere, the heritage council reached out to non-african american-based organizations to participate and adopted the new title of "mlk community celebration." the mission of the austin area heritage council is to encourage interest in all cultures represented in austin and to celebrate the rich history of austin. the heritage council promotes understanding and respect among all people by creating and supporting multicultural activities as well as highlighting the achievements and talents of all members of the community regardless of race or religion. during my seven year tenure - attendance at the mlk community march grew from 500 to 20,000+ and i grew fundraising amounts to in excess of $250,000 annually. the heritage council continues operating today under the original founding mission.

• govt sales at powered, inc.

  1995 - 2001

  excelled in all aspects of account development and relationship building in the government sales division of this computer manufacturing and sales firm.

• founding producer at austin jazz festival

  June 2013

  austin proudly hangs it's collective hat on being the Live Music Capital of the World(R) - with several music festivals to match. one noticeable missing genre exception- jazz. ajf is designed to fill that void. Jazz is a uniquely cultural phenomenon that unites people across the divides of race, age, nationality and socio-economic status. although we had to cancel the Oct 19, 2013 show due to heavy rains (the 3rd day of ACL Fest on October 13 was cancelled due to heavy rains that flooded out Zilker Park) - we will be back in 2014!

• founding executive producer at MVMT50

  March 2010

  MVMT50 (formerly blacks In technology) is a coalition of targeted technology organizations and industry thought leaders. our primary objective is to to highlight the impact the black diaspora has in shaping innovation and growing technology-related industries, products and services. we exist wherever creative disruption is taking place. our marquee event takes place annually in austin, texas during sxsw interactive festival (deemed "the most important interactive in the world by cnet) where we reconnect and honor individual achievements in support of our collective advancement.

• founding president at Griotmedia

  1999

  head company providing creative and advertising services, coordinate media communications, special events planning and non-profit resource and program development.

• founding publisher at soulciti

  1998

  soulciti was launched in 1998 as a grassroots online tool to disseminate general news and entertainment information of interest to the African-American population in Central Texas. In launching soulciti, I endeavored to create a hyper-local and hyper-cultural interactive, easy-to-use internet community to serve as a comprehensive source of information for and about African-Americans in Central Texas. soulciti currently has 23,567 registered users (as of November 2012), and an average of 38,000 visitors per month and 775,000 monthly hits.

Donell Creech's Education:

• The University of Texas at Austin

  1989 – 2014
  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)