In the mid-1980s, R. Patrick Hill established Hill & Associates in Tampa with a conviction that still guides HCP today: good decisions begin with understanding. He built a firm that used research to help clients see their challenges clearly, set a sound direction, and measure the results.

A Tampa native, Pat earned his marketing degree at the University of South Florida. As a student, he worked with Mario Garcia to help launch The Oracle, USF’s student newspaper, and helped develop the university’s early mass communications programming. He remained devoted to USF throughout his career, serving as president of its Alumni Association and spending more than 15 years on the Foundation Board. USF named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 1992 and honored his service with the Donald A. Gifford Alumni Service Award in 1994.

Pat joined Procter & Gamble in 1970 and rose through its brand management ranks. He later held senior roles at Griswold Eshleman and Bozell & Jacobs before returning to Florida as a partner at Ensslin & Hall Advertising, where he became executive vice president and chief operating officer. He brought that experience in brands, agencies, and business leadership to the practice he founded in Tampa.

That work reached far beyond the clients people might expect of a Tampa firm. From Colonial Williamsburg to Raymond James and Media General to The Space Foundation, Pat brought a research-led approach to organizations shaping their communities. His firm also supported development projects including Hunter’s Green. HCP’s later “Revolution in Heartcare” campaign helped advance the Pepin Heart Institute and Dr. Kiran C. Patel Research Institute. And in Tampa, Pat continued to put research to work for the Tampa Downtown Partnership, presenting studies of the people who lived, worked, and studied downtown.

When Pat joined forces with Sean Coniglio and Eric Polins around 2000, his research and strategy expertise became part of a broader firm that could carry an idea from insight through execution. With the contributions of many associates over four decades, HCP has grown and changed. Pat’s belief in understanding first has endured.

His legacy lives in the questions we ask, the evidence we seek, and the responsibility we feel to give clients an honest answer. It lives in the people he guided and the relationships he built along the way.

In 2022, we named the HCP conference room at our Tampa headquarters in his honor. It was a small way to recognize someone whose influence reaches well beyond any one room. Many times while meeting there, we still ask ourselves, “What would Pat think about this?”