Bob Hope (President & Co-Owner of Hope-Beckham Inc.)

Bob Hope started Hope-Beckham 15 years ago with longtime friend and colleague Paul Beckham. The public relations and event marketing agency is active in creating communications programs for major companies but is well known for its work in sports. It has represented Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, The Coca-Cola Company, Russell Athletic, UNICEF, Coors Light, the Atlanta Spirit, the Atlanta Sports Council and many other organizations as clients. Bob was also involved in the effort to bring the Dream to Atlanta.

Bob has been a longtime supporter of sports initiatives for women and girls. He has lobbied Congress on behalf of Title IX and is a past winner of the President�s Award of the Women�s Sports Foundation. He founded the Colorado Silver Bullets women�s professional baseball team in 1994. He has been a trustee and served on the executive committee of the Women�s Sports Foundation. He is also an inductee in the U.S. Women�s Sports Hall of Fame for his work in women�s sports.

Bob started his career as an 18-year-old working his way through college with the Atlanta Braves. He was the public relations director of the Braves when Hank Aaron chased and broke Babe Ruth�s career home run record. He was later head of marketing for both the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks and handled Ted Turner�s personal publicity. He was a partner in Atlanta public relations agency Cohn & Wolfe when it was sold to Burson-Marsteller in New York and moved to New York to work in that company�s world headquarters.

The agency won the accounts to support Olympic planning for Coca-Cola North America for both of the recent Olympics held in the U.S. � Atlanta in 1996 and Salt Lake City in 2002.

Bob and his wife Susan live in Stone Mountain. They have two grown daughters � Betsy, who lives in Tokyo, and Clair in Decatur.