Team

Smart. Creative. Strategic. Results-driven. The MSR Communications team is made up of PR practitioners who leverage their creative intelligence to help influence constituents and drive extraordinary results. Collectively, the MSR team has more than 75 years of experience working directly with key influencers such as journalists, analysts, clients, customers, partners, investors and prospects on an international scale.

Mary Shank Rockman, Principal & CEO

Mary Shank Rockman is the founder of MSR Communications, an award-winning public relations firm that specializes in providing superior communications management services to technology, B2B and consumer lifestyle companies. Ms. Shank Rockman has over 20 years of global marketing communications experience with high technology and consumer lifestyle companies. She founded MSR Communications to provide clients with strategic communications counsel and effective public relations programs that result in consistent message delivery and create significant visibility and impact. Her areas of expertise include message development and positioning; media, blogger and analyst relations-both corporate and product-related-executive communications; crisis communications and reputation management; media training and speech coaching; and event management.

Before founding MSR Communications, Ms. Shank Rockman was the director of Public Relations and Executive Communications for Sybase, Inc., where she was chartered with developing and directing Sybase's international public relations and executive communications programs. As company spokeswoman, she was responsible for its external communications strategy and maintaining corporate and executive visibility through international relationships with the media and key industry influencers. Ms. Shank Rockman also was responsible for directing the company's media coverage of its sponsorship of the World Cup soccer tournament, France 98. France 98 was the largest sporting event in history to leverage software and services to run the entire event. Over the course of one month, Shank Rockman hosted over 75 international journalist representatives from 30 countries. Sybase's global media coverage from the event garnered over 100 million impressions. Shank Rockman held several positions in the Sybase PR department, including group manager of PR for its enterprise database product line, and PR manager of data warehousing.

Prior to joining Sybase, Ms. Shank Rockman was responsible for promoting blue chip clients such as Hewlett-Packard Company, Price Waterhouse LLP, and Levi Strauss & Co., at Ketchum Public Relations, San Francisco. Through her work at Ketchum, she helped devise public relations programs that contributed to her clients' overall integrated marketing strategies.

Before joining Ketchum, Ms. Shank Rockman was the public relations manager for Kensington, a division of Fortune Brands, Inc., where she created Kensington's first-ever Public Relations department and managed the execution of its marketing communications program which helped drive revenue from $10-to-50 million dollars in less than four years. Shank Rockman was also marketing services manager and a product marketing manager for Kensington's award-winning peripheral devices with responsibilities that included advertising, public relations, packaging, and development of the company's collateral and marketing materials. Ms. Shank Rockman's career began in advertising at FCB High Tech Advertising/DSE and Carlick Advertising where she worked with start-up companies that have since become industry legends including Borland, Silicon Graphics and Toshiba America.

Mary Shank Rockman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She has been a board member of the Technology Section for the Public Relations Society of America for which she has spoken repeatedly at international conferences about crisis communications, reputation management and the use of technology in PR practices. For over 20 years, Shank Rockman has provided direct volunteer service to the San Francisco community. She is currently a member of the Auxiliary for the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center and a former Vice President and Board Member of the Junior League of San Francisco (JLSF). In 2004-05 and 2003-04, she was the JLSF Community Programs Council Director where she was responsible for directing the organization's six community services programs. For three and a half years, she served as co-chairwoman for the Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting project (TAPP), an educational program that assists pregnant/parent teenagers; and the Jamestown Community Center, a tutoring and enrichment program that helps educate under-served children in San Francisco's Mission District. She is a former member of the Board of Directors for Back On Track, a one-on-one academic tutoring and mentoring program that supports San Francisco's underserved K-12 youth.

Michael Burke, Account Supervisor

Michael Burke brings to MSR Communications 10 years of professional PR experience in technology, consumer, enterprise, healthcare, entertainment, and travel-oriented industries. A seasoned writer and editor, Michael's expertise includes global media relations, strategic planning media tour, and trade show logistics.

Michael is an expert at pursuing and securing top-tier media coverage for clients in national outlets such as Associate press, Campus Politico Blog, The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Reuters, Sports Illustrated, The Today Show, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Prior to MSR Communications, Michael was account manager for Los Angeles-based Kraves Ronstadt PR where he provided media relations and a host of PR services for such clients as data storage provider Iomega; logistics and supply chain software supplier CaseStack; access security vendor, HID Global; video game producer, Take Two Interactive; and the Disney Store, generating coverage in national print and broadcast outlets.

Before joining Kraves Ronstadt, Michael worked with BBS Communications where he provided various PR services including website design and content creation for such clients as the State of California's Department of Health Services, The Tallgrass Film Festival, the Family Health Clinic Association of Greater Los Angeles County, and Bell Gardens Community Clinic.

Michael Burke holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from Brigham Young University.

Michael Burke is also a musician and fiction writer, and has written one novel, several short stories and produced and recorded several record albums. He is the proud father of fraternal twins and a son.

Chris Blake, Account Director

With more than 13 years of entertainment and PR experience, Chris develops and implements strategic global public relations programs that help transform today's enterprise and personal technology, and consumer-lifestyle companies into tomorrow's industry leaders.

Specializing in products/company launches, media relations, messaging, strategic counsel, and crisis management for information/network security, email/instant messaging and mobile content and wireless applications companies, his industry experience also includes interactive TV, online advertising, application integration, location-based services, and supply chain management.

Prior to MSR, Chris represented Dolby Digital Cinema, email security vendor Cloudmark and entertainment content security company Cinea among others at Manning Selvage & Lee and mPRm. In 2000, he first joined MSR, where, for five years, he helped build strong leadership positions for mobile messaging company MobileWay (acquired by Mobile 365), enterprise instant messaging leader FaceTime and interactive TV pioneer MetaTV (purchased by Comcast/Cox venture TVWorks). Tapping his crisis and reputation management expertise, Chris led an aggressive grassroots campaign to promptly neutralize controversy surrounding an Internet advertising client while helping a vanguard software provider recover from a high-profile executive scandal (the firm received Bulldog and LACP awards for work on the latter).

Chris began his professional career at Levine/Schneider Public Relations, where he supported guerilla PR guru Michael Levine in his representation of Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, and other notable celebrities.

Chris Blake holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English: Creative Writing from the University of Southern California where he was twice awarded for his work at the Daily Trojan.

Jon Lavietes, Senior Account Associate

Prior to joining MSR Communications, Jon worked at top-ranked international PR firms Fleishman-Hillard and Burson-Marsteller. At Fleishman-Hillard, he worked in the Global Tech Practice with clients such as Nortel Networks, Silicon Graphics, Inc., and mobile high-speed Internet provider Metricom. He primarily worked on acclaimed account J.D. Edwards, helping advance the client's customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain, analytics and enterprise resource planning (ERP). He executed extensive media and analyst relations campaigns placing hundreds of articles and developing relationships with key technology trade and business reporters. He also provided strategic counsel for J.D. Edwards, helping to launch several products, execute events and develop key messaging. The J.D. Edwards account received a 2002 Silver SABRE Award and was a finalist for PR Week's 2003 "Hi-Tech Campaign of the Year."

Before moving to the Global Tech Practice, Jon worked in Fleishman-Hillard's Marketing Communications Practice, securing coverage for Yahoo! in national and internationl consumer, entertainment and business publications and major newswires. At Burson-Marsteller, he worked on various projects for Sun Microsystems where he helped successfully launch the Sun Ray 1 thin client computer and supported the client's PR efforts in high-stakes vertical markets including retail, financial services, digital media and telecommunications.

Jon has a background in sports PR through work with the San Jose Sharks and San Francisco Giants. In San Jose, he wrote articles for Sharks Magazine, the season ticket holders' game program, drafted press releases and contributed to the Sharks official media guide. With the Giants, he helped the Community Relations Department organize home plate ceremonies and players' community appearances, and he drafted public service announcements for the team's broadcasts.

Jon Lavietes received his B.A. in political science from Washington University in St. Louis where he interned at KMOX, a 50,000-watt news/talk radio station.

Crisel Ortiz, Senior Account Executive

MSR's resident general practitioner, Crisel leads the media relations front by conducting national outreach to business, trade, verticals, blogs and broadcast media outlets on behalf of enterprise, technology, mobile, internet and consumer lifestyle clients. She has secured national media coverage for clients in such outlets as Bloomberg, Business Week, Chicago Tribune, Self Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, TV Week, US News & World Report and Women's Health and on broadcast such as CNBC, CNET, FOX, Good Morning America and Nightly News with Charles Gibbons.

Crisel offers clients a breadth of experience in event management and promotion; and company, services and product launches.

Prior to joining MSR Communications, Crisel specialized in local broadcast and print media at Beck Ellman Heald, where her clients included IKEA San Diego, California Coast Credit Union, Stemagen, Reproductive Partners, MOSSY Automotive Group, San Ysidro Health Center, SCORE San Diego Chapter, and HLF Brandtailers.

Crisel Ortiz holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication with a minor in Visual Arts and an emphasis in Film and Video from the University of California at San Diego.