Vicki Barrett named Press-Register advertising VP

Staff Report

Vicki Barrett has been named vice president for advertising at the Press-Register and Mississippi Press.

Barrett , 40, joins the Press-Register from Biloxi's Sun Herald newspaper, where she held the same position.

"Vicki is a consummate sales executive with tremendous energy, as well as a natural-born leader," said Press-Register Publisher Ricky Mathews, formerly publisher at the Sun Herald. "She will be an asset to the Press-Register as we strengthen our newspaper and our multimedia capabilities.

"She worked with me at the Sun Herald and was a key member of my team. She was an instrumental part of helping our newspaper recover from Hurricane Katrina. Her approaches will help us serve our advertis ers with innovative products and services like never before. This has never been more important than in these tough economic times."

Barrett said the Press-

Register offers "a very special opportunity to advance my career in an industry I love while working with top-notch people and for a company that stands ready to meet the current challenges but also invest in future opportunities."

She replaces former advertising director

Larry Wooley, who has retired.

A native of the Mississippi coast, Barrett attended the University of Alabama before graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2006. She began her 18-year career at the Sun Herald in the classified advertising department. In 1995, after a series of promotions, she helped consolidate advertising and production departments at the newspaper and was named team leader.

She became advertising director in 1999, overseeing not only the newspaper, but beachblvd magazine, Biloxi-

.com, Keesler News, Seabee Courier, Stennis News, Journal of South Mississippi Business, Job Guide, beachblvd Bride and the Mississippi Gulf Coast Ultimate Visitor's Guide. In 2008, she was named vice president.

Barrett is a past president of the board of the Mental Health Association of Mississippi and past president of the Greater Biloxi Economic Development Foundation. She has also been active in the United Way of South Mississippi, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Gulfport Rotary Club.

She is a director of Biloxi First and has served as a governor of the Mississippi Public Education Forum.

She is a 1998 graduate of Leadership Mississippi and was also a graduate of the inaugural class of the Gulf Coast Business Council's Masters Program.

"I look forward to becoming a part of the Mobile community, and I am thrilled to still have a connection to south Mississippi, where I was born and raised," Barrett said.