USF Alumni Association Honors Priority Marketing, Teri Hansen, With ‘Fast 56’ Award

From the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce:

September 15, 2020

The University of South Florida Alumni Association has recognized Priority Marketing and its founder, Teri Hansen, as a 2020 USF Fast 56 Award winner.

USF, which was founded in 1956 and has 360,000 alumni worldwide, created the Fast 56 awards program in 2013 to honor the top 56 fastest-growing businesses worldwide that are owned or operated by Bulls alumni, as well as their leaders who demonstrate outstanding civic support.

Hansen, Priority Marketing’s president and creative director, graduated magna cum laude from USF in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Management, as well as a minor in criminal justice. Hansen attended classes at USF’s former campus in Fort Myers when the university offered just three bachelor’s degree programs: education, criminal justice and business.

Nine years after graduating from USF, Hansen founded Priority Marketing in Fort Myers. Today, the company has more than 40 full-time employees and is the region’s largest marketing firm with a growing client base of for-profit and nonprofit clients.

USF recognized the 2020 Fast 56 honorees through a virtual awards ceremony held Sept. 11. Topping the Fast 56 list as the fastest-growing Bull-led business was Fresco Foods and Tracy Povolny, who is founder, a board member and vice president of marketing for the Tampa-based company.

“It’s extremely gratifying to be included on such a prestigious list with fellow USF alumni who are visionaries leading their companies from coast to coast, and around the world,” said Hansen, a member of USF’s Alumni Association.

USF is a preeminent state research university with nearly 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in more than 180 degree programs. USF is the fastest-rising university in America on U.S. News and World Report’s annual “Best Colleges” ranking system. It currently ranks No. 46 in the nation.

In addition to a degree from USF, Hansen has earned professional Accreditation in Public Relations (APR).

In recent weeks, Priority Marketing also has been honored as a finalist in GrowFL’s 2020 Florida Companies to Watch recognition program, as well as the Florida Public Relations Association’s annual Golden Image Awards competition, where Priority Marketing earned 13 awards. PRNEWS also named Priority Marketing to its inaugural Agency Elite Top 100 list that spotlights the nation’s most innovative and strategic public relations firms of the year.

This press release was produced by the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed are the author's own.