Atlanta Falcons proprietor Arthur Clean, left, and EVP, Chief Model and Communications Officer Brett Jewkes watch from the sidelines throughout follow at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Shanna Lockwood, Atlanta Falcons
Brett Jewkes, left, and NFL and NASCAR legend Joe Gibbs. Courtesy NASCAR
Brett Jewkes dines with former BYU working again Tyler Allgeier throughout the Atlanta Falcons Rookie Membership Dinner at The Capital Grille in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, Might 25, 2022. Shanna Lockwood, Atlanta Falcons
Melissa Jewkes, left, and Brett Jewkes, proper, pose with Arthur Clean. Courtesy Brett Jewkes
Atlanta Falcons SVP chief communications officer Brett Jewkes poses for a portrait in Flowery Department, Georgia, on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. Shanna Lockwood, Atlanta Falcons
Seems, the self-proclaimed “largest BYU fan in Atlanta” didn’t even begin out as a BYU fan.
Again within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, Brett Jewkes grew up in North Logan, Utah, as a diehard Utah State Aggie.
“I used to be a small-town child in an amazing faculty city and I wouldn’t commerce that for something. I’ve cherished my profession in New York and Chicago and Atlanta, these huge cities. However they’ll by no means take the Cache Valley out of me, that’s for certain.” — Brett Jewkes
As a part of what he describes as an “idyllic” childhood, Jewkes spent weekdays enjoying no matter sport was in season and Saturdays attending each Aggies soccer sport at Romney Stadium.
When he listened to Craig Hislop name USU video games on the radio, Jewkes puzzled how he may get a job like that. After serving a Latter-day Saint mission to New York Metropolis, he enrolled at BYU, the place he interned for 4 years within the faculty’s sports activities info workplace.
Jewkes noticed firsthand the deluge of media descend on BYU within the fall of 1990, when quarterback Ty Detmer gained the Heisman Trophy.
After that, his journey within the communications enterprise took him to disparate locales like Cedar Metropolis, New York Metropolis, Charlotte, Chicago and, now Atlanta. Alongside the way in which, he labored with NASCAR, the PGA Tour and lots of world manufacturers.
Nowadays, Jewkes is the manager vice chairman and chief model and communications officer of the Clean Household of Companies and Arthur M. Clean Sports activities and Leisure, the mother or father firm of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
However that doesn’t actually clarify Jewkes’ job. He does slightly little bit of all the things in defending and constructing the Clean manufacturers, together with the Falcons; Atlanta United FC of MLS; Mercedes-Benz Stadium; PGA Tour Superstore; Mountain Sky Visitor Ranch; West Creek Ranch; Paradise Valley Ranch; The Ranch at Dome Mountain; and the Arthur M. Clean Household Basis.
Amongst many issues, Jewkes helped Atlanta’s effort to host the Tremendous Bowl in February 2019.
As a part of his position, Jewkes works intently with the communications, group relations, advertising, digital, inventive design groups throughout the portfolio. And he works intently with Clean, the co-founder of the House Depot, and the leaders of his multibillion-dollar enterprise and philanthropic empire.
Jewkes hasn’t forgotten his North Logan roots.
“I used to be a small-town child in an amazing faculty city and I wouldn’t commerce that for something,” he stated. “I’ve cherished my profession in New York and Chicago and Atlanta, these huge cities. However they’ll by no means take the Cache Valley out of me, that’s for certain.”
And the teachings he discovered at BYU have remained with him as nicely.
“One factor that was seared into me at BYU was how enjoyable it's to be across the video games and athletes and be in a aggressive environment,” he recalled.
“I wasn’t on the sector however you are feeling part of it once you’re adjoining to it. That hasn’t modified to at the present time. I’m so excited in regards to the Falcons’ coaching camp beginning (in late July). I’ll at all times love sport day. That hasn’t modified. If it ever does, it’ll be time to go do one thing else. Up to now, that hasn’t occurred and I don’t assume it ever will.”
A front-row seat to Ty Detmer’s Heisman Trophy season
Jewkes fondly remembers enjoying Nerf soccer at Logan’s Lundstrom Park, enjoying baseball within the vacant lot and sporting out the North Logan third Ward fitness center enjoying basketball.
Throughout soccer season, he’d trudge up the hill to the stadium and sit on the concrete steps to look at USU play. His dad and mom, Garth and Carol, are of their mid-80s and nonetheless have tickets to Aggies video games.
“I believe Dad’s a 64-year ticket holder. He’s Mr. Aggie,” Jewkes stated. “His world goes up and down with Utah State soccer and basketball and the Jazz. I believe he’s lastly forgiven me for going to BYU.”
Jewkes nonetheless has an affinity for the Aggies however he regards himself as the most important BYU fan in Atlanta.
But he selected his profession path largely due to Hislop, who served because the sports activities info director and radio voice of USU for years.
“I bear in mind listening to Craig on the radio and pondering, ‘That man’s received the good job on the earth. I’ve received to seek out out extra about him.’ I had the painful realization that the majority of us have that we’re not going to make it on the courtroom or on the sector,” Jewkes stated. “However that’s the following neatest thing.
“No matter Craig was doing with the Aggies was mesmerizing to me once I was younger. That’s what I needed to do. So, what occurred in Cache Valley actually set my course. All of it factors again to that.”
Following his mission to New York Metropolis, Jewkes enrolled at BYU. Former sports activities info director Ralph Zobell employed him as a scholar intern. Jewkes spent 4 years in that position, even working a month after he graduated for nothing.
“I’ll at all times be grateful to Ralph for giving me an opportunity,” Jewkes stated. “I volunteered for all the things. It was an unimaginable expertise.”
Someday, venerable announcer Brent Musburger was on the town for a BYU broadcast and Jewkes was requested to shuttle him from the Smith Fieldhouse car parking zone to the administration constructing on higher campus.
So Jewkes opened the door and let Musburger inside his 1988 Chevy Beretta.
“I’m nonetheless nervous enthusiastic about it,” he recalled, laughing. “I used to be only a wide-eyed child from Cache Valley and this man that I’d seen on TV for years and years and years was in my automobile. … What an amazing expertise and a bit surreal.”
Jewkes was working within the sports activities info workplace throughout Detmer’s Heisman season, which kicked off with the Cougars’ memorable upset of No. 1 Miami in Provo.
When the subject of the what’s-the-greatest-game-you’ve-been-to surfaces, prefer it does usually within the Falcons’ places of work, Jewkes nonetheless unabashedly talks about that Miami sport. On the finish of the sport, when the gang rushed the sector to experience that epic victory, Jewkes was standing in a nook of the south finish zone.
“I inform folks on a regular basis how electrical that was,” he stated. “I solely want two or three fingers to rely issues which have been extra thrilling than that.”
Additionally whereas attending BYU, Jewkes labored with BYU golf coach Bruce Brockbank and helped with the Cougar Traditional golf event that featured future famous person Tiger Woods one yr. He nonetheless cherishes the reminiscence of legendary BYU coach LaVell Edwards’ kindness towards him.
“He at all times known as me by first title. Coach Edwards had no purpose to do this; I used to be only a part-time little intern. It’s type of like the primary time (NASCAR legend) Richard Petty known as me by title (years later) — it didn’t appear actual. I’ll at all times respect coach Edwards. He’s my favourite coach of all time, in any sport.”
Former BYU athletic director Val Hale labored within the sports activities info workplace at the moment. Hale and Zobell have been amongst those who have been instrumental in placing collectively Detmer’s profitable Heisman Trophy marketing campaign. Jewkes was simply alongside for the journey.
Certainly one of his fondest recollections is the night time when a Heisman Trophy reproduction was sitting within the SID workplace at 30 Smith Fieldhouse and Jewkes took dozens of images with the trophy, lengthy earlier than selfies have been a factor, with the assistance of a Kodak disposable digicam.
“I've these images someplace in a folder in my basement. That entire expertise was unimaginable,” Jewkes stated. “I most likely didn’t respect it on the time as a lot as I do now. I used to be a scholar intern so I used to be watching most of it, simply supporting Ralph and Val nonetheless I may.
“To be round it and the kind of media that was rolling by all yr lengthy, not simply on sport day however to come back and do options and different issues, particularly when the voting was being finished. What number of instances has the Heisman gone to BYU? One. It was a magical time.”
From BYU to Southern Utah
After graduating in public relations at BYU, Jewkes left his consolation zone and located his first job at Southern Utah College because the sports activities info director.
He wasn’t at LaVell Edwards Stadium anymore.
At SUU’s stadium on the time, the bleachers have been steel. He needed to filter the pigeons and mice from the press field earlier than the season began.
He offered signage for the scoreboard, hung banners earlier than video games, went door-to-door promoting commercials for the sport packages. He additionally wrote and put collectively the media information. He was doing all the things.
And Jewkes loved each second of it.
“I’ll by no means have a job that I cherished greater than that one as a result of there have been minimal sources and also you needed to be very inventive,” he recalled. “I cherished being stretched and counted on. I had by no means offered a factor in my life. But when I didn’t promote, there wouldn’t be sport packages.
“There was a small, lean employees on the time. It was such an immersive expertise. You have been so depended upon by the athletic division and the coaches. Contemporary out of BYU, I had been uncovered to rather a lot. However all of the sudden, I used to be the man on a number of sports activities, together with males’s basketball. If I didn’t do it, it wasn’t getting finished.”
His spouse, Melissa, labored on campus, beginning up the ballroom dance program. The Jewkes spent 4 years in that place, from 1994 to 1998.
That have taught Jewkes a whole lot of beneficial classes and a permanent appreciation for the underdog.
Making it there — in New York Metropolis
Jewkes himself was feeling like an underdog in his occupation in Cedar Metropolis and wanted a brand new problem.
When he was serving his mission, he fell in love with New York Metropolis and its range. Whereas working at SUU, Jewkes took his spouse on a trip to the Huge Apple and so they mentioned the long run.
What if he took a communications job in New York?
“I at all times had this notion once I left my mission that I needed to return and see if I may ‘make it there,’ to not quote the music,” Jewkes stated. “Simply to see if I may make it within the deepest expertise pool, particularly in our self-discipline, that exists. Melissa is an adventurous spirit anyway. She has a whole lot of braveness. I used to be scared to dying as a result of we didn’t know if we may afford to reside there and begin a household.”
After Memorial Day weekend in 1998, the Jewkes returned to New York alone to knock doorways in hopes of touchdown job interviews. He got here residence with 4 presents, although they weren’t paying far more than what he was making at SUU, which wasn’t a lot nevertheless it didn’t matter.
Three months later, Brett and Melissa have been residing in a small residence in New Jersey with Brett working within the communications enterprise in Manhattan.
A yr later, he took a job at esteemed Alan Taylor Communications. Taylor, who based the company, famously was the publicist for legendary boxer and icon Cassius Clay — earlier than he grew to become Muhammad Ali.
At Taylor, Jewkes labored with Main League Baseball and companies like Purina, Gillette and Mastercard.
“They have been the highest sports activities company on the time in order that’s the place I needed to be,” he stated. “I had nice consumer success fairly early on and I did a whole lot of various things out and in of sports activities, together with product launches and that created alternatives to do extra.”
Whereas working in New York Metropolis, Jewkes served because the Latter-day Saint department president in Paterson, New Jersey, and it was there that they adopted their two sons, Stockton and Mason.
Finally, Jewkes grew to become an fairness companion within the company. However he needed to run one thing on his personal. And he received his likelihood.
Charlotte, Chicago and NASCAR
The companions at Taylor have been seeking to increase for the primary time past New York and sought somebody to open an workplace in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Jewkes eagerly volunteered.
In Charlotte, he continued serving NASCAR, which had change into a consumer throughout his time in New York, however the enterprise grew exponentially with different NASCAR initiatives and with NASCAR sponsors. It was there the place his daughter Mallory, now 17, was born.
“The day Dale Earnhart died was my first NASCAR race,” Jewkes remembered. “We had began working with the sanctioning physique a couple of months earlier. I’ll always remember that day for apparent causes, however for me it additionally kicked off almost 16 years working in a sport, and with lots of people, I’ll at all times cherish.”
After 4 years overseeing great enterprise progress in Charlotte, he was despatched to Chicago to open Taylor’s third workplace. He spent three years there earlier than returning to Charlotte to work with the administration staff at NASCAR.
Brett Jewkes, left, and NFL and NASCAR legend Joe Gibbs.
Courtesy NASCAR
“Being on the management staff for the game was a priceless expertise,” Jewkes stated. “The France Household was good to me and I discovered a lot about main a giant staff.”
Someday early in his NASCAR tenure, he discovered himself sitting at a desk with among the largest names in racing — Roger Penske, Joe Gibbs, Rick Hendrick and Chip Ganassi.
“What am I doing at this desk?” Jewkes thought.
Jewkes and his household have been thriving with NASCAR. He cherished the enterprise of racing. They figured Charlotte could be their last cease.
“(The NASCAR ecosystem is) so sophisticated and sophisticated from a enterprise and competitors perspective and simply exhilarating in each spheres. I'll at all times love my time in NASCAR as a interval of serious progress,” he stated.
However Jewkes’ profession was about to take one other detour.
A life-changing assembly with Arthur Clean
Whereas vacationing in Dollywood in Tennessee along with his household simply earlier than the beginning of one other faculty yr for the children, Jewkes acquired an surprising e mail from a recruiter, saying that Arthur Clean needed to speak to him.
Jewkes wasn’t in search of a brand new job and didn’t have any urge for food for one more transfer. However after some cajoling, he agreed to satisfy with Clean and his management staff after his trip.
On the time, AMBSE was constructing a brand new, state-of-the-art venue, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in Atlanta. It had acquired rights to an MLS franchise and was poised to increase its golf enterprise. It was additionally overseeing operations of the Atlanta Falcons, which have been within the midst of a aggressive run.
Brett Jewkes dines with former BYU working again Tyler Allgeier throughout the Atlanta Falcons Rookie Membership Dinner at The Capital Grille in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, Might 25, 2022.
Shanna Lockwood, Atlanta Falcons
“There was this magical soup of substances that was coming collectively. After I sat on it for a few days, I assumed, I like the NFL,” Jewkes stated. “I’ve by no means opened a stadium. I’ve by no means been a part of a franchise launch. I had by no means finished retail straight. I’ll take into consideration this.”
Jewkes first met with Wealthy McKay, chairman of the NFL competitors committee and the CEO of the Falcons, whom he reviews to now.
“I vividly bear in mind how excited he was about what was taking place in Atlanta,” Jewkes stated. “When he talked about Arthur, it was with nearly reverence. That was actually distinctive and real and it caught with me.”
For his assembly with Clean, Jewkes pulled into the Falcons’ facility at Flowery Department. Then he rode with Clean, in his Mercedes Sprinter, to his home in Atlanta.
“I assumed it was an attention-grabbing place for an interview,” Jewkes recalled.
The 2 talked for hours in Clean’s driveway.
“We have been so linked from that first chat,” Jewkes stated. “He by no means talked about the phrases income, revenue, stability sheet, progress or or any enterprise buzzwords. It was all about core values. It appeared that’s all he cared about. As soon as I began, it took me 11 months to listen to him say the phrase ‘revenue.’
“That was so uncommon to me, in comparison with the companies I’d been in earlier than. With Arthur, it’s at all times about, how will we do the fitting factor? How will we maintain the client? How will we add worth to the expertise? If we try this, enterprise outcomes will come.”
That was the mannequin that Clean adopted, which led to the House Depot’s success.
“I used to be simply awestruck in that interview,” Jewkes stated. “Sitting with the co-founder of the House Depot and proprietor of those groups, who’s constructing a stadium and a soccer franchise and a golf enterprise and freely giving some huge cash with actual intent to assist folks, simply blew me away.”
A safety man drove Jewkes again to his truck at Flowery Department. Earlier than heading again to Charlotte, Jewkes known as his spouse.
Melissa Jewkes, left, and Brett Jewkes, proper, pose with Arthur Clean.
Courtesy Brett Jewkes
“If we get a shot at this, I believe now we have to do it,” he stated. “She was like, ‘What?’ She has an adventurous spirit and has an amazing capacity to like folks wherever she goes and she or he is aware of higher than anybody when my hearth is lit, and Arthur lit me up that day.”
The following day, Jewkes acquired a job provide. He began working for the Clean Household of Companies Nov. 25, 2015.
His first assembly in his new job? Clean paired Jewkes up with McKay to work with the Atlanta Sports activities Council on Atlanta’s bid for the 2019 Tremendous Bowl, which the town ultimately secured.
“In my first hour working in Atlanta, I used to be serving to develop a Tremendous Bowl bid, which was wonderful,” he stated. “And this position has been one unimaginable alternative after one other ever since.”
Jewkes works intently with Clean and feels an in depth kinship with him. He satisfied him to jot down his autobiography, “Good Firm.”
For Jewkes, it was a “dream venture.”
Within the acknowledgments of the e book, Clean wrote, “Brett Jewkes was the earliest champion of this venture, believing its message could be necessary now and in generations to come back.”
“I needed to get that content material on paper for his legacy but additionally for its potential impression. I’ve spent a whole lot of time with him the final eight years and it’s like getting a free MBA each month,” Jewkes stated. “He’s 100% values pushed. He desires to do the fitting factor.
“My job is to construct and shield our manufacturers. There’s by no means a query whether or not you’re going to do the fitting factor. It’s simply what Arthur does. It’s been an unimaginable expertise to be of counsel to him and assist lengthen his legacy with ‘Good Firm’ and be part of his philanthropy work. And at this stage of my profession, the aim work issues to me much more than the sports activities stuff and the sports activities stuff issues a complete lot.”
‘Superb experiences’
In August, Jewkes will start his fifth yr instructing early-morning seminary, which he regards as “the very best calling within the church.”
He’s additionally a Bruce Springsteen tremendous fan, having watched his Broadway present 5 instances. Jewkes has additionally seen him in live performance in Atlanta, Denver and Milan, Italy. In July, he’s going to look at The Boss carry out at Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany, whereas on a household trip. He’s taking some mates to their first present in Montreal in November.
“Melissa thinks it’s a illness and she or he may be proper,” Jewkes stated, laughing. “It’s previous fanatical.”
Throughout his skilled profession, Jewkes has had what he calls “a child’s dream experiences.”
He was on the sector at Fenway Park when the All-Century Group was acknowledged in 1999. He was on the U.S. Open at Pebble Seashore in 2000 when Tiger Woods gained by 15 strokes. He’s attended quite a few Tremendous Bowls.
In the meantime, “I additionally type of proved to myself that I may swim in that deep expertise pool and maintain my very own with big-time shoppers and athletes and others,” he stated.
Jewkes is pleased with these folks within the communications enterprise that he’s been capable of mentor, and it’s gratifying for him that they nonetheless name him for his perspective, or recommendation, skilled and private.
His daughter Mallory, who’s in highschool, is eyeing BYU in hopes of changing into an athletic coach. His oldest son attends Utah State and his center son simply completed his freshman yr at Kennesaw State.
And, in fact, he’s loved working with folks like Arthur Clean.
“To be part of his philanthropy and doing our half to heal the world and elevate the those that don’t have the benefits that we do actually matches my values and my religion. I pinch myself generally as a result of it doesn’t at all times appear actual that I’m right here,” Jewkes stated. “It was actually cool to open what I believe continues to be the very best stadium in America and to launch a soccer franchise out of nothing and win a championship in our second yr and our golf enterprise, sometime folks will write books about that as an outstanding success.
“And I’m so pleased with our stunning ranch properties in Montana that Arthur is placing below conservation easements to guard and protect among the most pristine elements of the nation the place my roots are. It’s an inspiring factor that I get to be a small a part of and I’m so grateful.”
It’s been fairly a outstanding profession for the child from North Logan, the self-proclaimed “largest BYU fan,” in Atlanta.
Atlanta Falcons SVP chief communications officer Brett Jewkes poses for a portrait in Flowery Department, Georgia, on Wednesday, October 26, 2022.
Shanna Lockwood, Atlanta Falcons