Suzan McDowell is the CEO/ President of one of the most successful minority-owned businesses in South Florida, Circle of One Marketing, with high profile clients like Jazz in the Gardens, OneUnited Bank, Mourning Family Foundation, Opa-locka Community Development Corporation, Urban League of Greater Miami, The Children’s Trust Miami Heart Gallery, Camillus House, The University of Miami, National Bar Association and HistoryMiami, to name just a few. Founded in 2001, “The Circle” has grown into a influential corporate citizen with a unique ability to access and move the African-American & Caribbean markets. The Circle is a multi-talented, multi-cultural team inclusive of experts in creative design, public and media relations, social media, community outreach, partnership development, media buying and event management. In 2014, the agency launched The Circle L.A. a division focusing on California based projects. Suzan is a “Jamerican”, a graduate of the University of Texas who enjoyed an illustrious 19 year sales career in radio and newspaper. She is active in the community, donating her time, expertise and resources to Women for Obama, The Overtown Youth Center, One Billion Rising, Miami.Huffington Post
Suzan McDowell of Circle of One Marketing, Brian Feit of BMF Media, Lee Billington of Beak Labs, and Barry Ross Rinehart of Multi Image Group closed out the Event Innovation Forum with an intriguing Q&A session.
BizBash
Entrepreneur and public relations extraordinaire Suzan McDowell has been able to leverage over two decades of relationships within the radio and entertainment industry to make her dream of a full service communications agency come true. Overcoming a path of blood, sweat and tears, McDowell is the CEO/President of Circle Of One Marketing, arguably one of the most successful minority-owned businesses in South Florida. Founded in 2001, “The Circle” has grown into an influential corporate citizen with a unique ability to access and move the African-American & Caribbean markets. As the agency on record for the popular Miami ‘Jazz In The Gardens’ festival since its inception 9 years ago, Circle of One Marketing also represents other high profile clients including the University of Miami, OneUnited Bank and Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign in South Florida. In the midst of planning the upcoming Jazz In The Gardens music festival, BlackEnterprise.com caught up with McDowell to talk about the success of her agency, how her Jamaican heritage has impacted her professional career and the evolving challenges of entrepreneurship.Black Enterprise
Suzan McDowell, CEO and President of Circle of One Marketing has worked with companies like the City of Miami Gardens “Jazz in the Gardens” festival, the City of Rivera Beach Jazz and Blues Festival and the AHCA Medicaid Reform along with Fortune 500 companies and community organizations. She talks with us about working with clients, building a brand, and the basics of marketing.Madame Noire
Online reality show features Miami marketing executive. For marketing executive Suzan McDowell, the online reality program “The Invested Life” was a chance to get serious about saving for her 14-year-old daughter’s college education. McDowell, owner of Circle of One Marketing in Miami, was one of seven people from around the country that TD Ameritrade and MSN Money chose to pair up with financial counselors and chronicle. The program tackles tough issues such as merging finances after marriage and, in McDowell’s case, saving for a child’s college education. It also serves as a window into how programming will be distributed over the Internet in the future, said Larry Carroll, MSN managing editor.South Florida Business Journal
Learning At The Cash Register: 5 Questions For CEO Suzan McDowell. As a regular digital feature of the Sunshine Economy, we’ll be asking local CEOs how they got where they are and what they think of the business community in South Florida. Suzan McDowell is the President and CEO of Circle of One Marketing, a public-relations and community-outreach firm. A Jamaican-American, Suzan was named one of South Florida’s top 50 Most Powerful Black Business Leaders of 2013 by Legacy Magazine and the Miami Herald. WLRN
Marketing extraordinaire and entrepreneur Suzan McDowell has been making remarkable strides, going all out to raise the bar in the world of marketing. Born in Jamaica, McDowell left for America to live with her mother when she was 11 years old. Beaming with pride of her close relationship with ‘jam rock’, she told Flair, “I went to Mona Prep and then St Andrew Girls’, before leaving Jamaica to live in Texas with my mother, who is an American. I say to my brothers and sister: “Being a Jamaican and a McDowell is practically a pedigree.” Her passion for marketing was a far cry from her lifelong dream. In fact, she confessed that growing up, she actually wanted to become a veterinarian because she loved animals. The zeal for marketing was something that developed over time. “I realised that with effort and creativity, I could make people ‘move’. I have a bachelor of science in advertising from the University of Texas in Austin, so I followed that path, which eventually led to me owning my own agency.” The Gleaner
Jazz in the Gardens, the just 10-year old City of Miami Gardens’ signature event, has grown up over the past eight years since birth, with lots of mommies, daddies, aunties and uncles. And from its very humble beginnings in 2006 of just under 2,000 attendees to the 63,000 that strolled through gates in 2013, Jazz in the Gardens has come of age. Our child has grown up. It takes nine months to have a full term baby. From conception to delivery it’s typically 40 weeks of “gestation”, a relatively small word for all that goes into the baking of a baby making cake. The “birthing” of a festival comes with the same ups and downs, joy, pain, elation, concentration, nurturing and focus on the end product. It’s a whole heap of work and anyone in the event business will get the baby = festival analogy. Planning and executing an event of such magnitude takes the right team, real commitment, dependable resources, so much patience, weather worn expertise and oodles and oodles of heart. Uptown
The inaugural “Women in Media’’ roundtable, hosted by the South Florida Black Journalists Association (SFBJA) and the FIU chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, honored some of the top South Florida women in media at their Women’s History Month event on Saturday, March 29, 2014 at the FIU Biscayne Bay Campus in North Miami. Multimedia journalist Suzette Maylor was the emcee and Georgia D. N. Robinson, Esq., moderated the panel.
A networking reception was held prior to the event, with wine provided by YaYa Wine.
The honorees included Traci Cloyd, news director and anchor for WQHT/HOT 105 FM; Trenae V. Floyd, public affairs coordinator for Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara J. Jordan; Carolyn D. Guniss, managing editor of the South Florida Times; Yvette N. Harris, owner of Harris Public Relations; Suzan McDowell, CEO and president of Circle of One Marketing; Trina Robinson, Emmy-award winning WTVJ/NBC 6 television journalist; and Julia Yarbough, an Emmy-Award winning broadcast and print journalist and author.SFBJA
Suzan McDowell CEO of Circle of One Marketing sat down with one of our Host Ms. Sugar from In The Mix TV Show to discuss the success of Jazz In The Gardens.
In the Mix TV
