HOOKER STRATEGY PARTNERS
ABOUT HSP
Mike Hooker
Principal Advisor
Mike and the partners that work with HSP help clients wade through and translate the complexities to identify opportunities, build knowledge about potential partners, and forge impactful lasting strategic partnerships.
Experience:
Higher Ed - Mike served in multiple leadership roles at Colorado State University including, leading public affairs, media relations, community affairs and institutional partnerships. He has led teams and worked as a special projects guru, always leading with authenticity, listening to understand, and creating strategies and tactics that are consistent across the organization.
Community – Mike has led rich community and institutional partnerships. Examples include Visit Fort Collins, the Colorado Rockies, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, Rocky Mountain PBS, United Way of Larimer County and others.
Journalism - An Emmy award winning journalist, Mike worked for more than two decades as a television news reporter, including 17 years at KCNC-TV in Denver, the CBS-owned station in the country’s 17th largest market. Prior to joining CBS4, he also worked as a reporter at the NBC stations in Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in Joplin, Missouri.
Mike and his wife Debra live in Fort Collins, Colorado, where they raised their two daughters. Mike spends his free time trail running with friends, fly fishing, cycling, reading, and enjoying the great restaurants and breweries of Fort Collins with Oscar the small-but-sporty family dog.
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Mike Hooker founded Hooker Strategy Partners in 2024 to help organizations communicate more clearly and connect more authentically.
If that sounds good, you know that actually doing it can seem impossible in complex organizations like universities, local and state governments, and the web of businesses and interests that make up a community. Mike’s starting point is listening. Listening to understand why people see the same situation differently, and to discover where their interests, concerns or values still overlap. It’s an approach grounded in journalism.
Journalism Foundation
Mike spent more than two decades as a television news reporter, including 17 years at KCNC-TV/CBS Colorado in Denver. Earlier in his career, he reported for television stations in Nashville, Chattanooga, and Joplin. That journalism background still shapes his work every day: ask smart questions, get to the heart of the story, understand the audience, translate complexity and tell the truth clearly. It’s a foundation that continues to shape his work in public affairs, higher education communications, community relationship-building, and teaching.
In these roles, Mike has sat across from hundreds of people under pressure, both as a reporter asking hard questions and as a communications leader preparing others to answer them. Seeing it from both sides changes how he listens, prepares, and advises.
How HSP Works
As Principal Advisor, Mike works directly with clients and, when a project calls for it, assembles custom teams of trusted creative and strategic partners. HSP works with clients in private industry, local government, nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations. Services include strategic communications planning, content development, media relations, issues management, message strategy, and website development and content.
It All Connects
Mike also teaches in the Department of Journalism and Media Communication at Colorado State University. Before launching HSP, he served in senior leadership roles at CSU spanning public affairs, media relations, community affairs, and institutional partnerships. Across those roles, he helped lead teams, navigate sensitive issues, strengthen partnerships, and create communication strategies.
