Jay Thorne serves as the Assistant Vice President for Media Relations and Strategic Communications for Arizona State University, after previously serving as a member of the Thunderbird School of Global Management Executive Team since its merger with ASU in 2015. Jay came to the university after more than a decade of working as consultant for the president’s office at Arizona State University in a public affairs capacity.
In a career that has spanned more than 30 years, Jay’s background is in creating strategy and persuasive communications for public affairs, public policy and marketing clients in business, politics and non-profit organizations. He has worked as a member of the media, served as a marketing and communications director, a lobbyist, a liaison and a senior political and public policy strategist. He has managed political campaigns, corporate public relations, advertising and marketing, and real estate development projects.
A Valley resident since 1974 and a graduate of Arizona State University, Thorne’s professional experience is a unique mix of strategic communications skills, politics and public policy, media and marketing, and real estate.
Over the past three decades, Jay has been involved in some of the biggest public-facing issues in Arizona – corporate bankruptcies, multi-million dollar land exchanges, major development cases, hotly contested political campaigns, corporate communications crises, public policy advocacy, and media. He helped the Phoenix Suns and the Arizona Diamondbacks build downtown stadiums, and helped Arizona State University gain voter approval to launch a new campus. He helped the state’s workers’ compensation fund privatize and he helped the largest privately held development project come to life in downtown Phoenix in the midst of a national economic downturn. In 2006, Jay earned his real estate license and is a partner in various private development projects in Phoenix.
In his current role with ASU, Jay helps direct media and communications strategy for a variety of university initiatives including its government and community engagement agenda and its global academic initiatives, as well as supporting initiatives from the Office of the President. He has managed much of the university’s communications related to COVID-19 management including the ASU Biodesign Institute’s public communications regarding the virus and ASU’s efforts to provide testing and vaccinations to residents of the state of Arizona.
Jay has three grown children and he and his wife, Anne, recently received the gift of grandparenting. He is an avid soccer and baseball fan who, while exhibiting unimpressive athletic skills, would still rather be playing ball than sitting on the couch.