Blake Woolsey resigns as executive vice president of Fayetteville firm Mitchell

Blake Woolsey, a long-tenured executive at Fayetteville public relations firm Mitchell, has resigned, effective Jan. 31.

Woolsey has worked with company founder Elise Mitchell for the past 18 years, and she said the decision to leave the company wasn’t taken lightly.

“I feel such peace about what I am doing because this is such a great place,” she said. “It’s just time to discover what the next step in the journey is. I have no job lined up and I have no suitors, and there is not a thing wrong with this incredible company. This is just Blake wanting to figure out what the next step is in her career journey.”

In a statement, Mitchell CEO Sarah Clark said the following:

“We appreciate all the contributions that Blake has made over the past several years at Mitchell. She has been an important part of our business and family. While we will miss her, we support and wish her the best as she pursues the next phase of her career.”

A Texas native, Woolsey was a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s inaugural class of Forty Under 40 honorees in 1997. At the time, she was six months into her job as senior development officer at the University of Arkansas’ College of Business Administration. Perhaps her greatest achievement while at the UA was participating in and receiving a gift of $50 million from The Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation Inc.— the charitable program created by the family of Wal-Mart founder Sam M. Walton — in 1998. It was the largest gift, at that time, ever made to an American business school.

Before that, Woolsey was assistant director of donor recruitment for the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks.

Through her community involvement, Woolsey eventually formed a friendship and then a working relationship with Elise Mitchell. The two co-owned Executive Communication Consultants LLC for several years while Woolsey maintained duties at the UA. In 2008, ECC became part of Mitchell Communications Group, launched by Mitchell in Fayetteville in 1995, and Woolsey left the UA to join Mitchell full-time.

In 2012, Mitchell was acquired by Dentsu Network Inc., a Japanese company now called Dentsu Aegis that touts itself as “the No. 1 agency brand in the world.”

Woolsey’s resignation comes on the heels of a significant leadership shift at the company. On Jan. 1, Clark, previously the president, assumed the role of CEO, and Mitchell stepped down to take on the role of chairman.

Mitchell — rebranded from Mitchell Communications in 2015 — has a client portfolio that includes Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Sam’s Club, Hilton Worldwide, Procter & Gamble, Tyson Foods Inc., Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.