International PR Firm in D.C.
Leadership
Robert M. Volmer, President
As a founding partner of Crosby~Volmer International Communications (CVIC), Rob brings more than 15 years of experience in consumer and business-to-business product/brand marketing, government, public affairs and corporate public relations. He currently oversees the day-to-day management for the agency and plays an active role in all client business, specifically in the areas of strategic planning, counsel, message development and overall program design.
Snapshot of Experience:
Corporate - Clients ranging from The Prudential to Dow Chemical have looked to Rob for counsel regarding their strategic communications. Rob has worked with 17 Fortune 500 Companies on consumer and B2B media relations, investor relations, crisis communications, and internal communications.
Capitol Hill - Rob regularly engineers events and press conferences geared towards a Capitol Hill audience. Types of events include an environmentally friendly vehicle "Ride and Drive" on behalf of a leading automobile manufacturer, rallies to support or oppose particular pieces of legislation, and legislative conferences that have placed constituents in meetings with more than two-thirds of the current Congress. In addition, Rob has arranged more than 20 Congressional Testimony opportunities on behalf of CVIC clients.
International - Rob has worked with foreign governments including the countries of Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Senegal on strategic messaging and public relations programs both in the U.S. and abroad. He has personally run press conferences in 34 countries worldwide for government and corporate clients.
Company/Product Launch - Rob has managed more than 15 successful company/product launches including entry into the U.S. market for the Chinese America Electronics Corporation, one of the 100 largest companies in China. Product launches have included mobile entertainment devices, tires, alcohol, technology, and beauty products. Rob has been involved with product launches on six continents.
Issues Advocacy - Associations including The National Association of Broadcasters, National Beer Wholesalers Association, and Electronic Industries Alliance have depended on Rob's expertise to communicate their messages to target audiences ranging from Capitol Hill to state Capitals to consumers.
Travel - Prior to co-founding Crosby~Volmer, Rob worked for the Air Transport Association (ATA) where he managed public relations efforts for the Air Travel Card division. As Manager of Corporate Communications, Rob worked hand-in-hand with airlines including Lufthansa, KLM, Northwest and Continental developing and implementing communications programs. Rob has also managed media relations campaigns for hotels including Hilton Hotels Corporation and The Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, DC.
Andrew K. Crosby, Managing Partner
Andrew Crosby is a public relations professional with more than twelve years of experience in customer-targeted communications. He serves as managing partner and operates out of the Memphis office. Prior to Crosby~Volmer, Crosby served as Director of Public Relations and Marketing for Crispies Company International, a multi-national textiles company based in Washington, DC, where he gained professional acclaim for his creative marketing campaigns. During his three years at Crispies, annual corporate revenue increased five-fold.
Crosby has held positions with Cable News Network (CNN) in Atlanta, Georgia, and Fleishman-Hillard, International Communications in Washington, DC. He has developed and implemented public relations plans and marketing initiatives for clients including Chubb Insurance, Lucent Technologies, Honda North America, Merrill Lynch and Trans World Airlines.
Crosby holds a B.A. degree in Philosophy from Furman University.
Larry McAlister, Senior Vice-President
Larry McAlister is a communications, public relations and marketing consultant with nearly twenty years of experience. He brings a bundle of creative and strategic thinking in the practices of public relations, media relations, marketing and event management.
McAlister's unique combinations of communications, marketing and management skills have been a strong asset to clients on both the local and national level. During his time in corporate communications, McAlister headed media or public relations campaigns for Pennzoil Marine, Skeeter Boats, Berkeley, The Oklahoma Department of Commerce, The Oklahoma Dental Association, Heritage Trust Company, Automated Energy, Inc., and the Oklahoma City University Athletic Department.
Prior to that, McAlister spent 10 years as Media Relations Director for the nationally- prominent University of Oklahoma Football, and men's Basketball and Golf programs. He has served as Media Director for several NCAA and Big Eight Championship events, and as a media liaison for numerous NCAA Final Four Championships, Bowl games and professional golf events including two PGA Championships, one U.S. Open Championship and two PGA Tour Championships. He also served as local Media Director for the Children's Charity Ball, hosted by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.
An award winning writer, McAlister is a regular contributor to business and trade journals and is a regular columnist, writing about sports and business for magazines in the Oklahoma City region.
McAlister holds a B.S. degree in Journalism from Oklahoma State University and an M.A. in Administration from The Ohio State University.
Lori Guyton, Senior Vice-President
Lori Guyton has more than 20 years experience in strategic development and execution management of public relations, marketing, advertising, social responsibility branding and corporate communications programs. As Senior Vice President for Crosby~Volmer, she provides executive leadership and strategy development consultation for clients. Lori Joined Crosby-Volmer in 2008 and previously managed global public relations for Stanford Financial Group.
Background / Accomplishments
- At Stanford Financial Group, Lori managed the company's global public relations for its operations in North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, including managing communications for its private wealth management and institutional/investment banking divisions, as well as for its robust sports marketing and community relations efforts.
- For clients including AT&T Wireless, The Home Depot, Time Warner Communications and many others, she has developed and managed social responsibility branding programs and created signature community investment initiatives that increased brand awareness and garnered national and international publicity.
- Her media relations experience includes developing strategic positioning objectives and accompanying publicity tactics to enhance a client's image among target audiences. The results have produced stories in The Wall Street Journal, Time, the Today show, and in countless local, regional and industry print and broadcast media.
- As part of her public relations expertise, Lori is well versed in issues management, including developing customized strategies that meet specific communications and call-to-action objectives.
- She is experienced in developing public/private partnerships that bring together corporate sponsorship objectives and philanthropic initiatives to achieve brand awareness by leveraging the community relations strategy with the client's marketing and PR platforms.
- She has considerable expertise in conducting large-scale communications audits, using both qualitative and quantitative research to understand an organization's strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for growth.
- Advertising services include media planning and placement; managing creative concept and design projects; corporate identity development; production within all mediums; and advertising campaign strategy and management.
Larry E. Farnsworth, Vice-President
Lawrence E. "Larry" Farnsworth is currently a Vice President at Crosby~Volmer International Communications. Larry is in communication on a daily basis with our clients and helps them execute their media strategy by pitching stories, writing press releases and placing op-eds. Larry specializes in coming up with creative ideas to help our clients get their message across.
Prior to joining Crosby~Volmer, Larry was Deputy Press Secretary for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL). In this capacity, Larry oversaw the coordination of the Speaker's media appearances, located special media opportunities for Members of the House Republican Conference, and pitched story ideas to television and radio producers. Larry came up with the idea of creating a blog on the Speaker's website, making Speaker Hastert the only member of elected leadership in both the House and Senate to have an actual working blog. Larry worked in the Speaker's Press Office from 2003 until the spring of 2006, during which time he has also served as the Speaker's Speechwriter and as a press assistant, handling various day-to-day activities, such as writing press releases and speeches.
Prior to his work in the Speaker's Office, Larry spent six years in California working in local politics. He has worked on several campaigns, and has never lost a primary race. In 2002 Larry served on the Bill Simon for Governor campaign where he developed an aggressive evangelical outreach plan, broken down by zip code to register voters at their respective churches. Larry also coordinated a Get-Out-The-Vote operation broken down by zip code on Election Day. Despite the fact that it was a losing statewide campaign, Bill Simon carried every single county in the central part of California. Most recently, Larry was a key part in helping secure ballots during a contentious recount that secured victory in the election of the 109th Congress' youngest member, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) out of a highly contested four way primary in North Carolina.
Larry earned his Bachelor of Art's degree in Political Science from California State University, Fresno.
In his spare time, Larry enjoys reading, fishing, golf, travel, and jogging.
Joe Matulich, Vice President
Joe Matulich brings a wealth of marketing and communications experience to Crosby~Volmer where he currently serves as Vice President running the day-to-day operations of our San Francisco office.
Joe is also the Founder and President of Omega Productions, an award-winning video production and communications company. Joe founded the company in 1986 to create high impact film and video productions for organizations large and small. Joe brings to Crosby~Volmer the ability to tell our clients' stories not only through traditional broadcast and video mediums, but also to break through to the "YouTube" generation and market on the World Wide Web.
Joe has created numerous narrative and documentary programs, and has developed successful campaigns for product launches, marketing positioning, and corporate image and training. His work has benefitted the Stanford Business School, Apple, PeopleSoft, Levi Strauss, The GAP, OpenTV, Sun Microsystems, Sony and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Emphasizing the power of humor in story telling, Joe incorporates well-known comic talent in both recorded media and live comedy shows which he has produced over the years in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In the 1990s during the early expansion of the World Wide Web, Joe worked in the epicenter of Silicon Valley, counseling numerous technology companies on the importance of emotional impact in communications, particularly as the Internet provided an increasing glut of raw information. As Video-on-Demand (VOD) came of age, Joe was actively involved in its development at the Stanford Research Institute. At one VOD start-up, Joe headed the team that created the promotional media that resulted in raising $250 million in private equity.
As a consultant, Joe has brought his film and television expertise to numerous Bay Area start-ups, both overseeing branding and internal communications initiatives. In 1999, he co-founded ConnectMe to provide home-based care for people in need using the emerging technologies of video mail and Web-based video conferencing. Following a series of trials with AOL-Time Warner the following year, ConnectME has continued to pioneer the application of two-way video for this critical market.
Joe is the recipient of many industry awards including a Gold Cindy, First Place/National Education Film Festival, 5 CINE Golden Eagles, the Telly Award, the New York Film Festival World Medal and a Joey Award for corporate training.
John B. McConnico, Creative Director
John Beck McConnico has more than 10 years of experience in implementing creative solutions for national & international clients such as NBC, The U.S. Postal Service, Apple Computer, Hewlett Packard, and Sony. His range of experience includes design for print media, environmental graphics, web & broadcast media, and overseas product development.
Prior to Crosby~Volmer, John was Design Lead at The Quokka Sports network, where he created web & broadcast experiences for the NBC Sydney Olympics, America's Cup Race, and The Volvo Ocean Race. His design for the Quokka Sailing portal won a "Best of the Web" award from Forbes online in 2001. Before Quokka, John was Design Director at The Landmann Group in San Francisco, a marketing & consumer products company based in Bremen, Germany. He art directed the company's print collateral, advertising, and web presence, in addition to overseeing prototype production with Landmann's Hong Kong office and Chinese factories.
McConnico holds a B.F.A. in Environmental Design from Otis-Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. He also studied Fine Arts & Photography at Memphis College of Art. A published designer and artist, his work is included in collections both nationally and internationally.
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2008-08-28 01:18:38