ABOUT
David Wieme, The DeVilling Group
Executive Vice President, Creative Director and Partner
Two tours of duty, totaling nearly 20 years, with Palace Sports & Entertainment (PS&E). Two Detroit Pistons championship rings. Three Detroit Shock championship rings. Four years running a successful public relations business in Washington, DC.
David Wieme has been in the PR game, more or less, since he was 15 years old. For more than 20 years Wieme has honed his craft; working with organizations big and small, dealing with personalities known and obscure, mastering tools from the archaic carbon-paper press releases to today’s Twitter Tweetdeck. The journey has taken him around the United States, and even into some lesser-known areas of Canada, and he has filled his Rolodex with contacts in fields ranging from architecture to zoology. He rides the terrain park, he is a Mac and someday, he will play Augusta National.
As of this morning, Wieme was the executive vice president and creative director for The DeVilling Group, LLC. In his position, Wieme heads the agency’s sports and entertainment practice and its social media service for clients whose business objectives include leveraging powerful platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Before joining The DeVilling Group, Wieme was a member of Palace Sports & Entertainment, off and on, since 1982, getting his start on the Detroit Pistons stats crew. He served as an intern in the team’s public relations department during his senior year at Oakland University and after earning his degree in communications in 1989, joined the organization full-time. He served as a public relations assistant for three years, studying during the Bad Boys era that saw the Pistons win two consecutive NBA Championships (’89 and ’90).
In 1993, Wieme left the Pistons to pursue opportunities in the commercial real estate appraisal industry – a natural progression, to be sure (insert sarcastic eyebrow raise, here). After four years of discounted cash flow analyses and cap rates, Wieme moved to Washington, D.C. and opened a small but mighty (others said mighty small) public relations firm – WAVE Public Relations. The firm represented local sports-related clients, including the Washington Area Bicyclists Association (WABA), Major League Lacrosse (MLL), The National Senior Games Association – The Senior Olympics (NSGA) and Gilco Sports & Entertainment.
After four years in our Nation’s Capital, Wieme rejoined PS&E in the position of director of strategic communications, a hybrid role that included public relations, marketing, promotions, internal communications and brand management. For more than eight years, Wieme was the director of strategic communications at PS&E.
During his second tour at The Palace of Auburn Hills, Wieme was given the additional duties of director of operations for the Detroit Fury, was in charge of promotions of the Pistons Hoop City Grille restaurant and, most recently, was put in charge of the organization’s Web initiatives. He and his staff were responsible for maintaining and populating PS&E’s three Web sites: www.palacenet.com, www.pistons.com and www.detroitshock.com (now defunct) as well as developing and maintaining the Detroit Pistons social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Posting Up, etc.).
A native of Troy, Michigan, Wieme graduated from Oakland University 1989. He was a three-year varsity letter winner for Oakland’s golf team and is an active alumnus who fund-raises for Oakland’s athletic department. Wieme is also involved in several professional organizations including the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Detroit chapter of AdCrafters. He is a graduate of Leadership Detroit (Class XXVIII) and is also a member of the board for the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Executive Vice President, Creative Director and Partner
Two tours of duty, totaling nearly 20 years, with Palace Sports & Entertainment (PS&E). Two Detroit Pistons championship rings. Three Detroit Shock championship rings. Four years running a successful public relations business in Washington, DC.
David Wieme has been in the PR game, more or less, since he was 15 years old. For more than 20 years Wieme has honed his craft; working with organizations big and small, dealing with personalities known and obscure, mastering tools from the archaic carbon-paper press releases to today’s Twitter Tweetdeck. The journey has taken him around the United States, and even into some lesser-known areas of Canada, and he has filled his Rolodex with contacts in fields ranging from architecture to zoology. He rides the terrain park, he is a Mac and someday, he will play Augusta National.
As of this morning, Wieme was the executive vice president and creative director for The DeVilling Group, LLC. In his position, Wieme heads the agency’s sports and entertainment practice and its social media service for clients whose business objectives include leveraging powerful platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Before joining The DeVilling Group, Wieme was a member of Palace Sports & Entertainment, off and on, since 1982, getting his start on the Detroit Pistons stats crew. He served as an intern in the team’s public relations department during his senior year at Oakland University and after earning his degree in communications in 1989, joined the organization full-time. He served as a public relations assistant for three years, studying during the Bad Boys era that saw the Pistons win two consecutive NBA Championships (’89 and ’90).
In 1993, Wieme left the Pistons to pursue opportunities in the commercial real estate appraisal industry – a natural progression, to be sure (insert sarcastic eyebrow raise, here). After four years of discounted cash flow analyses and cap rates, Wieme moved to Washington, D.C. and opened a small but mighty (others said mighty small) public relations firm – WAVE Public Relations. The firm represented local sports-related clients, including the Washington Area Bicyclists Association (WABA), Major League Lacrosse (MLL), The National Senior Games Association – The Senior Olympics (NSGA) and Gilco Sports & Entertainment.
After four years in our Nation’s Capital, Wieme rejoined PS&E in the position of director of strategic communications, a hybrid role that included public relations, marketing, promotions, internal communications and brand management. For more than eight years, Wieme was the director of strategic communications at PS&E.
During his second tour at The Palace of Auburn Hills, Wieme was given the additional duties of director of operations for the Detroit Fury, was in charge of promotions of the Pistons Hoop City Grille restaurant and, most recently, was put in charge of the organization’s Web initiatives. He and his staff were responsible for maintaining and populating PS&E’s three Web sites: www.palacenet.com, www.pistons.com and www.detroitshock.com (now defunct) as well as developing and maintaining the Detroit Pistons social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Posting Up, etc.).
A native of Troy, Michigan, Wieme graduated from Oakland University 1989. He was a three-year varsity letter winner for Oakland’s golf team and is an active alumnus who fund-raises for Oakland’s athletic department. Wieme is also involved in several professional organizations including the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Detroit chapter of AdCrafters. He is a graduate of Leadership Detroit (Class XXVIII) and is also a member of the board for the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
