A telephone call 14 years ago changed his life, Kyle Parks says.
BY MICHAEL BUTLER
NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – Kyle Parks was only five months into his new job as director of corporate communications for Walter Industries Inc. Now TV news cameras from across the country were pointed at him, reporters parsing every word.
Hours before, 13 workers in a Walter Industries coal mine in rural Alabama had died when roof supports in a tunnel more than 2,140 feet underground gave way, triggering two explosions and a ferocious fire. It was Sept. 23, 2001.
With the country still reeling from 9/11, weary reporters descended on the mine. Family members, government officials and reporters demanded answers. And as scores of inspectors and company executives sought cover from the glare of national attention, Parks stepped in front of the cameras and went to work.
“It was just an extraordinarily difficult situation,” said Parks, 58. “Everything from the company being blamed for being lax on safety to just making sure the company was doing the right thing, in terms of the families, the other employees. There were so many different groups of people … that we really had to say, ‘OK, what’s the best way that we can handle this?’ ”
For Parks, it was a crucible by crisis – a crisis unlike anything he had ever faced in 22 years as a newspaper journalist.
But the nation’s worst mining disaster in 17 years became a crucial first step in a new career that led eventually to Parks’ current role as principal and co-owner of B2 Communications, a growing public relations firm in St. Petersburg. He and co-owner Missy MacFarlane founded the firm five years ago.
B2 serves clients ranging from Aliant Bank in Alabama to the Ybor City Development Corp. in Tampa. Its services include news media relations, writing projects, crisis management and what it calls “media and message coaching.”
In the months following the Alabama mining disaster, the federal government cited Parks’ employer for eight major safety violations and ordered it to pay civil fines of $435,000. After the company appealed, six of the major violations were dismissed and the fine was reduced to $5,000.
“We got a lot of really bad publicity,” said Parks. “At the same time I feel like we mitigated it as well as we could have by being really open and just giving the facts and explaining things as best we could. I always feel like that’s the best answer, as opposed to running and hiding and saying nothing. Some people within the company were advocating that.”
Over the next two years, more trouble followed – a major environmental accident with cyanide from a plant leaking into a creek, then a violent employee strike that included the steel workers union firebombing one of the company’s facilities.
In each case, Parks put a company face on situations most preferred to avoid.
“I wouldn’t wish it on anybody, but the experience was unbelievable,” said Parks. “Every single thing I said had to be measured. But practice is everything.”
Parks, who grew up in a Virginia naval family, initially thought he wanted to be a teacher. But during college at Virginia Tech he joined the school newspaper and fell in love with the work.
He was a journalist for 22 years, 18 with the St. Petersburg Times as a copy editor and designer, assistant business editor and reporter. But he began to feel that he had “hit the ceiling” with the newspaper.
Then an executive at a business he was covering contacted him.
“It was one of those calls that changes your life,” said Parks. The executive was leaving corporate communications at Walter Industries and recommended Parks as his replacement.
Parks was intrigued by the idea. “While I loved writing stories every day, it was still the same activity. Whereas in PR every hour of every day is different,” he said. “I was a very good journalist, but PR suited my skills also.”
Nearly 15 years later, Parks has blossomed in the role of representing corporations in crisis. He also handles more mundane tasks, such as adding visibility to a new Atlanta shopping center that wanted more non-traditional retailers in its vacant space.
As principal and co-owner of B2 Communications in downtown St. Petersburg, Parks is in the enviable position of being able to choose the clients he wants.
“That’s a beautiful thing,” he said.
Mary Shedden is the Health News Florida editor with WUSF Public Media and an adjunct journalism professor at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. She met Parks several years ago through a mutual friend.
“I’m really impressed by how he segued from journalism into public relations,” said Shedden. “He has a clear understanding of both. He knows that they are not the same but they have the same foundational values in terms of the value of communication. And I think that because he has a journalism background, it makes him a stronger public relations professional.”
Parks often speaks to her class about a career in public relations, and Shedden gets to see a side of him others may not.
“Sometimes he is so passionate in support of a topic that he may not see the big picture,” said Shedden. “But that’s his job, so I’m respectful of that.”
Last year B2 Communications led the public relations effort for Greenlight Pinellas, a ballot initiative aiming to bring light rail and expanded bus service to Pinellas County.
“I’m a big believer in mass transit and modern urban development,” said Parks. “And I was a believer in what the program could do for this county. I was hoping that if we led the way Hillsborough County would come along. We are the largest metro area in the country without a mass transit system. And I think it’s really holding this area back. So, I had a personal passion for it.”
But he was aware that after a certain point control over the outcome was out of his firm’s hands.
“I also knew that we had this solid base of quality reputation in the market,” said Parks. “Which meant that if we lost and got our butts kicked, which is what happened, that it wouldn’t hurt us as an agency.”
Indeed, despite the defeat of GreenLight Pinellas the agency seems to be thriving.
From his office on the fifth floor of the Synovus Bank building Parks tends to clients in his spartan but modern space.
He still handles occasional crisis work, a professional athlete or doctor with image trouble, a real estate deal turned sour. That makes up about 15 percent of his work.
Now his greatest impending disaster is the threat from a looming mountain of email. “I get hundreds of emails a day and if I don’t stay on top of it, it overwhelms me,” said Parks.
But not today.
Parks, MacFarlane and B2 Communications are preparing for their five-year anniversary party. Business has been good and the company is financially sound.
“We want to keep growing. We’ve been growing about 25 percent a year,” said Parks. “I feel like we’re in a pretty good place.”
More than 350 people have received invitations reading, “Looking forward to the years to come.”
The invitations also say the party is scheduled for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
“Well, 5:30 to 8:30 on paper,” said Parks with a smile.
Information from the Tuscaloosa News was used in this report.