Jim Muench, President Jim Muench, a former director of communications for the Missouri Department of Economic Development, offers his clients 17 years experience in the intersecting fields of public relations, communications, marketing and journalism.   He firmly believes that businesses benefit   most from an integrated, strategically planned approach employing various communications tools that are tailored   to fit the individual needs of the client.

Muench holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a bachelor’s degree in English from Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. He began his career in 1988 at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he held writing and editorial posts in the Instructional Materials Laboratory, Computing Services and the News Bureau, where he served as MU’s science writer.

In 1994, he joined Westminster College as its director of media relations and publications. Two years later, he helped to successfully showcase the college during its historic 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” address. In addition to writing news releases for the college, he took photos, worked in the darkroom, recorded a weekly radio show, and wrote, edited and laid out the college’s alumni magazine.

In the fall of 1996, he joined the State of Missouri as public information and education director for the Division of Energy, part of the Department of Natural Resources, where he worked to broaden his experience in management, marketing, magazine writing and Web communications.

After three years, he received a promotion to director of communications for the Department of Economic Development (DED). In that capacity, he directed all of the department’s marketing and public relations efforts and honed his speechwriting and column-writing skills. At DED, he initiated and completed the department’s first comprehensive marketing plan and created a Marketing Council to help coordinate its marketing efforts.

Throughout his career, Muench also has worked as a free-lance writer for newspapers, magazines and business publications. His byline has appeared in such periodicals as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Columbia Daily Tribune, the Columbia Business Times and Sports Illustrated for Kids.  His play, The Eye of the Sun, recently received a staged reading at William Woods University, has been read before the MU Playwrights Workshop and won the Plays In Progress award in 1993 from Rockhurst College.  He also has experience as a voice talent in radio and in grantwriting.