Annie Howell is the executive vice president of corporate communications & media relations for Crown Media Family Networks, home of Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, which is owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc. Howell is based in the company’s New York office and reports to Bill Abbott, president and chief executive officer.
Howell is responsible for directing the full scope of Crown Media Family Network’s communications and public relations strategies including corporate communications, media relations, publicity, investor relations, social media, and government relations. She also provides strategic guidance to all Crown executives and serves as primary spokesperson for the networks. Howell joined Crown Media Family Networks in October of 2010 as senior vice president of corporate communications & media relations.
Prior to Crown Media Family Networks, Howell served as the senior vice president of communications & public affairs at Planet Green and TreeHugger.com, Discovery Communication’s global cross-platform initiative and channel devoted to the environment. Howell oversaw all communications strategies and media outreach for the initiative including the award-winning channel launch, development of partnership strategies, and multi-faceted communications and public affairs campaigns for programming and multi-platform assets.
Howell was previously senior vice president of communications in Discovery Communications’ U.S. networks division. In this role, her oversight included all communications and publicity efforts on behalf of the division’s cable networks, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel, Fit TV, Military Channel, Discovery Home, and Discovery Kids Channel. Howell managed the U.S. division’s talent management unit and communications for the company’s theatrical film unit (Discovery Films), ad sales & marketing, affiliates sales & marketing, the Discovery Channel global education partnership, and the Discovery Channel pro cycling team helmed by Lance Armstrong.
Previously, Howell was the vice president of communications for Discovery Networks, U.S., where she was charging with managing trade and business public relations efforts, local market publicity, and the awards and competition unit. Howell oversaw departmental operations, developing and directing the strategy and implementation of communications on behalf of Discovery’s emerging digital networks. Howell joined Discovery in 1999 as the director of communications for the Discovery Health Channel and Discoveryhealth.com, where she was a member of the launch team.
Prior to joining Discovery, Howell was a vice president at the Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm Powell Tate. She also served in account executive positions with Ogilvy & Mather Public Affairs.
In 2012, Howell was honored by CableFax as one of their “Most Powerful Women in Cable”. A 2008 Fellow of the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute, Howell was named “PR Person of the Year” by CableFax magazine in 2009 and was the recipient of WICT’s 2006 Touchstones of Leadership Communicator Award. She received a PR Week Award for “Consumer Launch of the Year “(Planet Green) and was on the magazine’s list of “Who to Watch” in 2008.
Howell currently serves on the National Board of Directors for Alliance for Women in Media (AWM) as a director-at-large. She is also on the executive committee and board of the Association of Cable Communicators (ACC) and the NCTA Public Affairs Committee. She is a member of the Television Publicity Executive Committee (TPEC), the PR executive committee of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS), WICT, AWRT, PRSA, WWPR and the National Press Club.
Howell is a graduate of Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology and resides in Kensington, Maryland with her husband and two sons.
