Builder and leader of high-growth, global agencies
A freelance project with a boutique firm became a decade-long tour of the tech PR agency world. During my time working in the public relations industry, I have connected with dozens (hundreds?) of companies looking to raise and maintain their profiles through storytelling. I also have had the opportunity to hire, nurture, and create friendships some of the most talented people working in communications.
Beginners
Beginners is the agency for people who start things. My co-founder, Christopher Farrell, and I met working together at Morty. While Chris and I both have backgrounds in agency tech PR—Chris at Derris, mine described below—it’s our experiences working inside venture-backed startups as marketing and communications professionals that inform Beginners’ holistic point of view around brand, communications, and content. As clients, we struggled with the siloed, limited perspective agency partners brought to our relationships. Whether you hire Beginners for one service line or all three, we understand how the pieces fit together, making us natural collaborators with startup teams, founders, and any organization with a hands-on attitude about using brand marketing to drive results. We also understand how innovation storytelling has—and continues to—change, and we help companies evolve their marketing and communications strategies to reflect the current narrative environment.
Hotwire
I launched the Hotwire PR business in the United States as its first Managing Director, opening offices in New York City and San Francisco. Within three years, our team of twenty-five were named Best Tech PR Agency Worldwide by The Holmes Report (PRovoke). At Hotwire, we had the opportunity to pitch and win exciting briefs, including launching Rakuten in the US (a story best told over a drink), supporting Indeed’s first brand campaign, and many, many more. The team members I recruited into Hotwire, many as grads seeking their first jobs in the business, have gone on to work in communications at incredible companies including Google, LinkedIn, Netflix, Affirm, and Squarespace, to name a few. And my partner in crime started her own incredible firm, Sourcecode. Bringing Hotwire to the US as a startup CEO inside an existing agency remains a career highlight.
MSL
I had a brief but memorable run working for Publicis agency MSL Group. While I was recruited into the business to serve as the new digital practice leader based in New York, helping to reimagine the agency’s non-traditional offering, my experience in tech PR meant that I was called to serve as leader of the PayPal account. Our 50+ person integrated team across New York, San Francisco and Boston represented the consumer, merchant and corporate sides of the business, in addition to supporting other brands inside the family (Braintree, Xoom). A buzzy, data-driven holiday program was quickly followed by supporting PayPal on their first-ever integrated brand campaign, New Money, capped with the company’s first Super Bowl ad. I also worked closely with other senior members of the Publicis team to explore deeper collaboration and work on joint briefs across advertising and communications as part of the “Publicis One” strategy.