Epley reaches top of the flack stack.

• Position: Epley Associates Inc., public relations - Company profile

Epley reaches top of the flack stack

After the Charlotte Public Relations Society gave a "Best Little Whorehouse in Charlotte" party a few years ago, it was Joe Epley who gave the members a good scolding.

"When the society may have gotten a little frivolous, the note to tone us down was always Joe Epley's," recalls Ken Sanford, public-information and publications director at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Epley, 51, is the no-nonsense president of Charlotte-based Epley Associates Inc., one of the largest public-relations agencies in the Southeast. He doesn't disclose revenues, but he employs 39 in Charlotte and Raleigh offices, and his clients include Phillip Morris U.S.A. and Burroughs Wellcome Co., maker of the AIDS drug, AZT. His specialties include government relations, issue management and marketing.

To work for Epley, you must sign a public-relations ethics code and complete an accreditation process.

"If there is respect for the [public-relations] practice, it's because of him,." says Bill Ballenger, vice president of Carolina Public Relations/Marketing Inc. in Charlotte.

Now, he is trying it on a national scale. Epley was elected president-elect of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). That puts him in line to be president...