MRPP Attracts WTVD Vet To Bolster Executive Ranks
10/08/99
The Triangle Business Journal, (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, NC)

Cary -Sheila Hale Ogle realizes she won't be around forever, but she wants to make sure that her media consulting agency is.

So MRPP is building its management ranks by adding Donna Sorensen, former sales manager of local ABC affiliate WTVD, as a partner and executive vice president for new business development. And the Cary-based agency promoted Sue Toth to executive vice president for media.

"Every company president needs to think about an exit strategy," Ogle says.

Ogle has no plans to leave the company but wants to free up time to help in developing new business and for community affairs. Ogle is a candidate for Cary town council and is a potential choice to replace the late State Rep. Jane Mosely (D-Wake), who recently died of cancer.

"The company is at a point where we can't grow anymore unless we bring in someone," she says.

With 20 employees, Ogle says she is looking to increase annual billings to about $20 million. She declined to release current billings.

Sorensen says she expects to build MRPP's business with fast growing technology companies in the Triangle. She also says she would like to bring in additional retail clients.

Sorensen joined WTVD in 1994 after working at a St. Louis station, also owned by ABC.

Ogle said she considered several offers to sell her business, but decided to retain the company.

"I realized we were no different than those companies except for the number of employees and our billings," she says.

A longtime employee of the Howard Merrell advertising agency, Ogle started MRPP in 1988. The business has been recognized as one of the region's fastest growing companies.

MRPP focuses mainly on helping clients such as Time Warner Cable and Fireside & Patio Shop decide what media to use for advertising.