Kickstart Brings Together the Best and the Brightest
The Kickstart team is seasoned, expert, and focused on delivering
results in the enterprise application world.
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Annette has 20 years experience in communications and public relations. During the last 16, she has specialized in media relations and strategic writing services for companies in the high technology B2B space and enterprise software applications arena.
Earlier, she was involved in managing PR, advertising, and events for clients in the consumer space. Prior to launching Kickstart, Annette was director of corporate communications at The Baan Company, following the company's IPO. In this capacity, she directed the company's global communications and PR activities, while also providing hands-on management of the U.S. influencer program and holding a leading role in all positioning and messaging activities.
Before Baan, Annette was with The Horn Group for five years, where her final position was account supervisor. As the company's first employee, she was instrumental in creating the agency's excellent reputation as well as its culture. Agency clients included Vantive, PeopleSoft, Arbor Software, Avalon Software, Continuous Software, and Alantec. Her work on these accounts ran the gamut of front-line media relations, program strategy development, team management, PR event management, and writing of all PR materials. Annette has a B.A. in English literature with a business emphasis from UCLA.
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Jill brings 15 years of public relations experience to her position. Her seasoned launch expertise and understanding of how to create relationships within the media community have served Kickstart clients well over the past seven years. During her career, she has handled PR launches of a number of new technology products and services at Hewlett-Packard Company, Colorado MicroDisplay, Gemplus, Solectron, and inFocus.
Previously, Jill was with Golin/Harris International, Copithorne and Bellows, The Bohle Company, and Chiat/Day Communications where she provided strategic PR counsel and communications services for clients ranging from auto manufacturers Nissan and Infiniti to electronic gaming companies such as GTE Entertainment and Grolier Interactive. Most recently she handled holiday-related media relations for Activision, the international provider of interactive entertainment software.
While in her agency roles, Jill also spearheaded media relations activities, developed press materials, planned special events, coordinated media/analyst tours and industry trade shows, and managed account teams. She has worked with mainstream publications and broadcast, securing coverage for clients at The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CBS, Good Morning America, the New York Times, Time, and U.S.A. Today.
Jill has a B.A. from San Diego State University in journalism with a minor in psychology.
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With 12 years experience managing U.S. and international PR programs, Robyn Fernsworth is a seasoned technology media veteran. She has created the communication plans underlying successful company, product, and service launches. She is expert in securing executive speaking engagements, building strong press and analyst relations, and obtaining well-positioned coverage in media of all types.
Robyn has served as PR manager at Electronic Arts, where as part of numerous product launches, she secured top-tier media attention including the AP, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, New York Times, Rolling Stone, Teen People, Wall Street Journal, USA Weekend, USA Today, CNN, and MTV. Prior to Electronic Arts, she secured trade and regional coverage for ION Systems in Berkeley, as well as achieving corporate recognition at the San Jose Tech Museum through product installation into exhibits. She has also worked with a number of PR agencies, including Horn Group and Golin Harris. Robyn has a B.A in political science and a B.A. in rhetoric and communications from the University of California, Davis. She also attended University of Cadiz, Spain.
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Laurie Gibson has more than 20 years experience in public relations and software sales. In both arenas, she has delivered results for enterprise software companies large and small. Since joining Kickstart at its inception in March 1998, she has focused her efforts on developing and implementing successful media relations programs for her clients. Laurie is experienced with a wide variety of media including IT, industry, and business print publications; online venues of all types; and TV and radio.
Throughout her career, Laurie has provided media relations services to many companies, including the database provider Pervasive, consumer and business IT equipment manufacturer Hewlett Packard, enterprise software developer PeopleSoft, application development providers Ochre and Prodera, telephony providers Altitude Software and WBT Systems, and e-commerce developer, Intershop. Prior to entering the field of high-tech public relations, Laurie held various sales management positions at Macromedia, Computerware, and Bonsu. Laurie has a B.S. in political science, international relations from UCLA.
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Maria Krinsky has more than 12 years of public relations experience, coupled with a journalism background. Her public relations experience includes both in-house and agency positions, where she has led a variety of PR activities including media relations, industry analyst relations, managing a client service staff, crisis communications, managing product reviews and launches and conducting media trainings. She has established strong relationships with media worldwide, including consumer, business, trade and industry press, as well as industry analysts.
Maria held a previous position as senior PR manager for Macromedia and then Adobe Systems , where she led media and analyst relations for their web conferencing and mobile phone divisions. Prior to Macromedia, she led an account team at GCI, focusing on high tech accounts such as Dell , Pioneer Electronics , Sony Ericsson and Intel . She also worked in house at companies such as Dell , Power Computing and Metrowerks.
Maria has a B.A. in speech communications from Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State University).
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Shannon has more than 10 years experience in managing PR programs. She brings focus and creativity to her media relations work. She has written and had published numerous case studies, articles, opinion pieces, and press releases for Kickstart and other clients. She also manages the agency's competitive, industry and media research.
Prior to joining Kickstart, Shannon was an account executive at Communications West, a San Francisco-based public relations and advertising agency, where she managed accounts in the transportation, supply chain and technology industry sectors. She also worked as an account executive at Susan Davis International, a public relations and special events firm in Washington, D.C. She has also been a writer for Gauger & Silva, a public relations and advertising agency specializing in health products. Shannon holds a B.A. in advertising from the Pennsylvania State University School of Communications.
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Elaine Meis has 18 years high-tech marketing, corporate communications, and public relations experience in markets that include telecommunications, contact centers, workforce management, database management and enterprise software. She has worked at PR agencies and for large international corporations and high-tech start-ups.
Prior to joining Kickstart, Elaine directed analyst relations for Aspect Communications (now Aspect Software), a contact center solution provider. Prior to joining Aspect, Elaine was a director in Burson-Marsteller's technology practice, where she led positioning and launch projects for several high-tech start-ups and directed the analyst relations program for Aspect Communications.
Earlier in her career, Elaine was director of strategic marketing at database vendor Informix Software. She was also with Teradata Corporation for nine years, through its acquisition by NCR Corporation, ending her tenure as director of worldwide marketing in the large computer products division. At Teradata, Elaine was instrumental in growing the company from a $40M start-up to a $250M market maker in the commercial parallel processing and data warehouse markets.
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Susan Monroe has more than 15 years experience in marketing communications and public and investor relations. She currently serves as a writer and editor across Kickstart Consulting’s client roster.
With special expertise in the financial services, enterprise software, digital data broadcasting, and IT consulting markets, Susan’s writing capabilities encompass bylined articles, customer case studies, corporate backgrounders, road show presentations, executive opinion pieces, press releases, and business white papers. Prior to working with Kickstart, Susan was with Harding Marketing, a full-service marketing communications agency, where she created an array of marketing collateral for Hewlett-Packard, one of the organization’s major clients. Susan has also held staff marketing communications and public relations positions at BroadVision, eSignal, Neale-May and Partners, and Stapleton Communications.
Susan has a B.A. in political science from Hollins University, an M.B.A. with a marketing concentration from Virginia Tech, and a certificate in technical writing.
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Amanda Orr has more than 15 years of experience developing and implementing public relations strategies for some of the world's leading companies. She is recognized by her clients as a successful writer, media strategist, event planner, and tactician with an emphasis in the healthcare and technology industries.
Prior to joining Kickstart, Amanda spent eight years at the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller. There she managed the Washington, D.C . technology practice and led a global campaign to help position software giant, SAP, in the small and midsize business arena. During her time at Burson she also represented a range of business and consumer technology accounts including the Consumer Electronics Association, Aspect Communications, Accenture and Gamers.com . Amanda is also a freelance writer and has been published in several local newspapers and magazines.
Amanda is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, MA .
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