New & Notable

IEEE-USA PR Director to Begin Transition to Retirement in 2007

Pender M. McCarter, IEEE-USA's Director of Communications & Public Relations, is retiring from his full-time position at the end of the year, and will begin consulting for IEEE-USA on engineering public awareness in January. McCarter has served 25 years: as IEEE PR Manager (1981-1994); and as IEEE-USA PR Manager and IEEE-USA Associate Director/Director of Communications & Public Relations (1994-2006). During this time, he helped fashion a new image and identity for IEEE-USA to communicate to the organization's publics, both in and outside of government; as well as promoted technological literacy, public understanding of engineering, and increased diversity in the engineering profession. McCarter is active in the Public Relations Society of America, as an accredited Fellow; and the International PR Association, as a United Nations NGO representative. His career encompasses 38 years in association management, high-tech PR, journalism and education.

A Message from the Managing Director

IEEE-USA Communications and Public Relations Director Pender M. McCarter announced that he will retire at year end. Please see Pender's retirement announcement below. I am pleased to note he has agreed to stay on in a new, part-time role in 2007 supporting several of IEEE-USA's public awareness efforts. After 25 years of service to the IEEE, I'm glad that Pender will continue to contribute to IEEE-USA's engineering public-awareness programs. I've included a summary of his many contributions to our organization at the end of this e-mail. Please join me in wishing Pender much happiness and fulfillment in his new life.

Chris Brantley
Managing Director
IEEE-USA

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"2006 IS A BELLWETHER YEAR FOR ME. I celebrated my 25th anniversary at the IEEE on 3 August and my 60th birthday on 26 September. On 30 October, I joined IEEE Computer Society staff colleagues and volunteer leaders in San Diego at the 60th Anniversary celebration of the ENIAC and the Computer Society. Beginning in 2007, my professional career will have spanned 38 years — 28 years as an association executive in communications and public relations, with two high-tech professional societies, AFIPS and the IEEE; and 10 years, as a journalist and an educator.

"Like many Baby Boomers, I enjoy the stimulation and satisfaction of a work routine. In Candide, Voltaire said work protects us from three great evils — boredom, vice and need — adding, 'we must cultivate our garden.' With the philosopher's sage advice in mind, I've decided to begin a *transition* to retirement on Friday, 29 December 2006.

"I've elected to retire from my full-time position at the IEEE; and IEEE-USA Managing Director Chris Brantley has offered me the opportunity to consult with the Washington office on public-awareness issues, beginning on Monday, 2 January 2007. I look forward to concentrating on promoting the public understanding of engineering and increasing diversity in the profession — responsibilities that were also part of my full-time position.

"This new work routine will free me to pursue more of my passions. Before I fully retire, I'm eager to devote a few years to what public-relations professionals describe as 'cause-related PR.' For me, this will involve promoting diversity and multiculturalism.

"In addition, I plan to lecture and teach on PR worldwide; study subjects that have always interested me (such as photography, theatre, art, history, architecture, law, sociology and psychology); and volunteer in the IEEE, the International PR Association, the PR Society of America, at the National Press Club, in the Duke Alumni Association, on my Washington, DC condo Board, at the Smithsonian Institution, in a community soup kitchen, and through National Airport's Travelers Aid.

"I will seek to continue to travel worldwide; improve my Spanish fluency; take cooking classes; learn how to play bridge; do more biking and hiking; and, with some limbering up, perhaps even learn to dance the tango!

"I'm fortunate to have spent 25 years of my life with the IEEE practicing my chosen profession and cultivating many enduring relationships. I look forward to seeing (as one columnist has observed) how much more of the future I can inhale!"

— Pender

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TO GIVE YOU AN OVERVIEW OF HIS QUARTER-CENTURY WORKING IN WASHINGTON, WITH THE IEEE as PR manager (1981-1994), and at IEEE-USA as PR manager and associate director/director of communications/PR (1994-2006), Pender:

• Helped fashion a new image and identity for IEEE-USA that enables us to communicate more clearly and effectively to our publics, both in and outside of the government; established the first integrated marketing and communications department within IEEE-USA; helped volunteers and staff launch Today's Engineer; and garnered two international public-relations awards for IEEE-USA in public affairs and public awareness

• Oversaw an effort to appoint a stronger scientific and technical adviser to President George H.W. Bush's White House staff through a public-relations campaign; led a PR and ad campaign to support the development of commercial technologies; and designed a public-awareness campaign for strengthening precollege math and science education

• Coordinated on behalf of IEEE staff the $1-million public-relations efforts of 60-plus high-tech organizations, during National Engineers Week in 1993 and 2004; provided the germ of the idea for the first EWeek Future City Competition, celebrating its 15th year in 2007; spearheaded two United Nations' EWeek forums; restarted in the mid-1980s, and continued into the mid-1990s, an IEEE industry-relations program; and developed a diversity statement for IEEE staff

• Launched in 1983 with volunteers and staff the IEEE's first Technology Media Briefing, held in Washington and repeated annually for more than 15 years; and produced two IEEE media directories of hundreds of knowledgeable members of our organization's more than three-dozen technical societies — the model for the current searchable electronic guide

• Planned and promoted with volunteers and staff the IEEE Centennial in 1984, including a video tribute to IEEE members from President Reagan; and, to bolster the image of engineers, placed advertisements in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times

• Served as speechwriter for several IEEE and IEEE-USA presidents; created a grass-roots, public-relations counseling program for U.S. IEEE members; and counseled IEEE volunteer leaders for appearances on Donahue, Good Morning America and 60 Minutes

In his first high-tech communications assignment, working as a part-time consultant for the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) in 1969, Pender drafted "Background Papers on Professionalism in the Computing Field," introduced at an industry conference headed by Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor under President Kennedy. These papers were later published by AFIPS and delivered to President Carter's Science Adviser. Pender also launched the first newsletter on electronic banking (1975), and a seminal newsletter on fiber optics (1981).

In 1979, as public information manager with AFIPS, he prepared testimony for IEEE Professional Activities Vice President (later IEEE President) Bruno Weinschel on "A Call for National Action to Promote Industrial Application of High Technology." Also, while at AFIPS, Pender collaborated with Internet Pioneer Vint Cerf while Vint was a volunteer for the IEEE Computer Society, and represented Computer magazine at one of President Carter's White House news conferences. As an editorial consultant, in 1981, he reported on international informatics meetings in Rome and Tokyo.

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Last Update:  29 September 2011