Mike McDougall, APR, is vice president, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, for Bausch + Lomb, where he leads the global eye health company’s outreach to business, financial, and healthcare media; executive and employee communications; government and community relations, and corporate philanthropy. In 2010, PRWeek named Bausch + Lomb a finalist for its In-House PR Team of the year honor.
Prior to joining Bausch + Lomb in 2007, McDougall was worldwide market development director (Americas) for digital cameras and devices with Eastman Kodak Company. From 2003 to 2006, he was worldwide director of products and services public relations at the photography giant, where he developed global communications strategies for the company’s complete range of consumer digital products and services. McDougall was responsible for some of Kodak’s most prominent digital introductions, ranging from home thermal photo printers and inkjet systems to cutting-edge cameras — key elements of a global program that restored the company’s reputation and market presence. While at Kodak, McDougall was named to the Consumer Electronics Association’s Board of Industry Leaders, and chaired CEA’s 300-company digital imaging division.
Before Kodak, McDougall was director of operations and public relations at Buck & Pulleyn, Inc. During his nearly six-year tenure at the Rochester, N.Y.-based PR and advertising firm, he served clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Bausch + Lomb, Xerox, Kodak, Corning, and Constellation Brands while growing the public relations practice by over 800 percent. He also led the agency to considerable national and international recognition, including being named PRWeek’s Boutique Agency of the Year in 2002, and a coveted spot on The Holmes Report’s “Best Places to Work in PR” ranking.
In the mid-1990s, McDougall was one of the first practitioners to utilize the World Wide Web as a public relations tool. His communications programs have received some of the industry’s most prestigious honors: a combined ten Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvils and Awards of Excellence, PRWeek’s High-Tech Launch of the Year Award, the Silver SABRE, and Inside PR’s Creativity in Public Relations Award. He is a frequent national speaker and industry commentator regarding online niche marketing, and a judge for national awards competitions.
Before joining Buck & Pulleyn in 1997, McDougall was the technology accounts supervisor at Giles Communications (White Plains, N.Y.). Working with Yamaha Corporation, his programs were instrumental in transforming the CD-R industry from a data-centric to a music-centric focus, helping spark the widespread consumer CD-ripping/burning phenomenon.
He serves on the board of the Children’s Institute, an international preventive mental healthcare organization, and is a member of the marketing advisory council for the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. He is a past president of the Rochester chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, is on the board of directors for the Advertising Council of Rochester, and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society.
McDougall graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of science in communication (public relations concentration; international relations minor) from Boston University. In 2000, at the age of 27, the Rochester Business Journal named him as one of the most influential executives under the age of 40 in the greater Rochester region.
McDougall, 36, lives in Honeoye Falls, N.Y. with his wife and three children.