South Carolina Business Review

How will AI change the PR/marketing business?

By Mike Switzer

Published June 17, 2026 at 6:30 AM EDT

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Matt Lochel, president and CEO of JDPR in Greenville, SC

Ever since the Internet came along a few decades ago, the PR/marketing business has faced a multitude of challenges within a rapidly changing landscape. Now there’s AI. What will this do to the industry? Mike Switzer interviews Matt Lochel, president and CEO of JDPR in Greenville, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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