MaryAnne Howland

Ibis Communications

Owner and president of Ibis Communications, MaryAnne and her award-winning creative team help build bridges between brands and emerging and niche markets with traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies and solutions. Said more simply, we motivate “unmotivated” consumers to connect with brands; help companies who “get it” get on the radar of diverse talent, suppliers and stakeholders; and help non-profits attract philanthropists.Owner and president of Ibis Communications, MaryAnne and her award-winning creative team help businesses develop and integrate solutions for diversity and inclusion for internal and external audiences, especially in the areas of HR, Supplier Diversity and Community Partnerships. "Said more simply, we connect consumers with brands, employers with talent, purchasers with minority suppliers, and philanthropists with non-profits."

Founded in 1993, the Ibis Communications client roster ranges from Fortune 500 companies such as Allstate, Comcast, PepsiCo, and Toyota to successful innovative start-ups such as Sungevity and TV One.

Current clients include Pitney Bowes, HCA Healthcare Corporation, The Walter Kaitz Foundation, and National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC).

“In recent years, we have expanded our brand to include green marketing and business practices as part of our commitment to our clients, our partners, and our global community.” MaryAnne has written a chapter “Bridging the Brand of Diversity and Inclusion with Green” recently published in Aspatore Books’ Greening Your Company, part of the Inside The Minds books series. She has also been published in LOHAS, Racing Towards Diversity, Black Enterprise, Dallas Morning News and Fielding and Open Roads Travel Guides on the subjects of social media, diversity and inclusion, green jobs and travel.

MaryAnne currently serves as Chair of the Social Venture Network, a global organization of social entrepreneurs who are transforming the way the world does business using the model of triple bottom line economics – people, planet, profit.

MaryAnne is a co-founder of the Global Diversity Leadership Exchange, a partnership with the New York Stock Exchange to raise the dialogue of diversity and inclusion among global companies.

MaryAnne is also co-founder of Motorsports Institute, a non-profit whose mission is to motivate and inspire academic excellence among students by rewarding them with an experience at the race track.

She also serves on the Multicultural Marketing Committee for National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications; on the Community Outreach Committee for Frist Center in Nashville; and is a founding member of the Athena Patron’s Society in Nashville.

MaryAnne has also been “redefining the mommy track” as a business owner, community leader, and proud single mom of her 17-year-old son, John Robert. (Ebony Magazine, 2008) She was also an Advertising Working Mother of the Year Award Winner from Working Mother Magazine in 2007.