Jean Cecil Frick is a dot connector, helping clients create strategic communications plans geared towards engaging key stakeholders whether it be the media, elected officials, business leaders or other. She takes her clients’ plans for today and analyzes them through the lens of how to best prepare for the future. Jean Cecil does that through steady listening and attention to detail learned after years working in Washington, D.C. for Vice President Dick Cheney and later for President George W. Bush.
While working in D.C., Jean Cecil played a part in the signing of the PEPFAR legislation, a lasting legacy of the Bush administration that authorized emergency AIDS relief into law and still continues today.
After years working at the highest levels of government, Jean Cecil returned to South Carolina where she rooted herself in the business community by taking a role with the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. Once there, she familiarized herself with the businesses doing work across the state, which prepared her for her next role with the state’s Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW). In that role, Jean Cecil was instrumental in repairing the relationship between the agency and its employees after years of operating in the red – all the while she worked on the side to rebuild the department’s trust fund. Her work with DEW was recognized by then-S.C. governor Nikki Haley who entrusted Jean Cecil with turning around another state agency.
Before joining NP Strategy, Jean Cecil was the CEO of Beam and Hinge, a web development firm serving small to medium-sized businesses.
Jean Cecil is an advocate for women. She has served as a Girl Scout troop leader for three years and was elected to the board for the Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands in 2023. Additionally, upon ending her tenure as Chair of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Jean Cecil was proud to further her impact by nominating a woman to replace her. Jean Cecil served as the 2021-2022 Chair of Columbia Chamber Board of Directors and continues to play an active role on their Executive Committee.
She was raised in Spartanburg, S.C. and attended Wofford College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Art History. She is a graduate of the Riley Institute Diversity Leaders Initiative and Leadership South Carolina. Jean Cecil has been recognized by Columbia Regional Business Report as a 2020 Phenom and by Columbia Business Monthly as a Best and Brightest 35 and Under.