Jodi Echakowitz, Principal (Twitter: jodiechakowitz)

Jodi Echakowitz has close to 20 years of public relations and business writing experience in a cross-section of enterprise, non-profit and consumer markets. Since founding Echo Communications in 2001, she has been relied on by senior executives in a variety of organizations to devise and implement highly successful public relations programs. A strategic thinker who pays great attention to detail, Jodi combines dogged determination with the highest levels of integrity to deliver value to clients.

Before embarking on a consulting career, Jodi held increasingly senior roles guiding the media and analyst relations programs for a number of market-leading technology companies. At Delano Technology, she worked together with high profile, multinational public relations agencies to craft and execute the communication strategies for the launch of its CRM and e-business platform and around its very successful IPO. During her tenure at the company, Delano was included in over 600 media hits and reports by industry analysts; and won numerous corporate and product awards.

Jodi's passion for public relations began in South Africa at I.T. Projects, a technology consulting organization. At I.T. Projects Jodi provided sales, customer service, training and technical support to its national clients, and managed all aspects of the company's marketing and public relations activities.

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Caroline McGrath

With over 15 years of corporate experience delivering business-to-business marketing communications programs that build brand awareness and generate demand for products within the IT sector, Caroline McGrath brings deep industry knowledge and understanding of the evolving North American technology marketplace. Caroline's corporate experience includes multinational corporations such as Xerox, Epson and Tektronix, where she delivered measurable results in the area of public relations, marketing and corporate communications.

In 2004, Caroline started her own PR consulting practice and has successfully grown a technology-focused firm with a client portfolio that includes Bell Canada Enterprise Group, Fluke Networks, Fluke Electronics, GN Resound, Globalstar Canada Satellite Co., BioteQ Environmental Technologies and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum.

Caroline holds a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Sociology from Carleton University. In 2001 she received a certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution from the faculty of law, Windsor University. She has served on the Board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada. In 2005, she received an ACE award from the Canadian Public Relations Society (Toronto) for her work with Bell Canada Enterprise Group.

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Denise J. Deveau

Denise J. Deveau has been doing writing and corporate communication assignments since 1985. She has handled a wide variety of writing, research and publication coordination assignments in the government, education, high technology, financial, industrial, utility, oil and gas, and consumer categories, including newspaper articles, speeches, video scripts, corporate brochures, case histories, corporate profiles, annual reports, press releases and newsletters.

She has been a regular contributor of articles to various North American computer and industry publications, including The Globe & Mail, The National Post, Canadian Retailer, Computing Canada, Management Review, Technology in Government, InfoWorld Canada, Communications & Networking, Network World, Utility Automation, and others.

Her corporate assignments have included work for the following organizations: GE Canada and related GE business operations, GE Power Management, AT&T Canada, Bell Canada, NCR Canada, InSystems, the Canadian Standards Association, George Brown College, CIAR (Canadian Institute of Advanced Research), the Association of the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI), the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, John Labatt Foundation, Shared Network Services, MFP Technology Services, ATI Technologies, CDSL Canada, Bank of Montreal, Canada Trust and TD Bank.

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Heather A. McCulligh

Heather McCulligh is an experienced manager in strategic marketing and public relations for technology and telecommunications companies. Heather has been working in corporate marketing and public relations for almost a decade. This includes marketing communications planning, media and analyst relations, market research and analysis, and event planning and sponsorship management.

Heather most recently served as Senior Communications Manager at Zarlink Semiconductor. At Zarlink, she managed marketing and public relations programs for the company’s semiconductor product lines, provided counsel on internal employee relations and community relations programs, and supported investor relations initiatives.

Before joining Zarlink, Heather worked as Account Director at High Road Communications, a technology public relations agency. Heather was responsible for planning and implementing global strategic public relations and marketing programs for hardware and semiconductor technology clients. Client engagements included MOSAID Technologies, Strategic Microelectronics Corporation, Solidum Systems, Extreme Packet Devices/PMC-Sierra, Innocor, CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions, Tropic Networks, BTI Photonics, Potentia Semiconductor, MDS Nordion, Natural Convergence Inc. and AT&T Global Network Services. Prior to her time at High Road, Heather provided marketing and public relations consulting services to a variety of clients, including the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Central Canada Exhibition Association.

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Lesley Karon

Lesley Karon has over 15 years of consultative marketing and account management experience in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer environments. She’s a creative, high-energy, results oriented professional who works strategically with clients to manage and deliver innovative and successful communications programs.

Before joining Echo Communications, Lesley worked on the Air Miles Reward Program at The Loyalty Group (now Loyalty One) for seven years. As a Senior Relationship Manager, she worked with a variety of clients including Bank of Montreal, the largest consumer and business sponsor of the program. On solo or complex coalition campaigns, Lesley worked with a variety of organizations such as Amex, Shell, Purolator, LCBO, Metro, HBC, Primus, Rexall/Pharma Plus, The Toronto Star, RONA, Safeway, Jean Coutu, Century 21, and NEBs. Her work with clients involved all types of marketing and communications as well as complex analytical execution and tracking. Always focusing on meeting and exceeding goals, Lesley often achieved double-digit growth for her clients. While at Air Miles, she also taught Marketing courses for the School of Business at George Brown College.

Lesley started her career at Dunn and Bradstreet Canada where she worked for almost 10 years in both sales and marketing. During her tenure with the organization, Lesley held a variety of positions and worked with clients in a vast array of industries including manufacturing, financial, transportation, food service, fashion, legal, education and the provincial government.

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Lizanne McReelis

Backed by over 12 years of experience, Lizanne McReelis develops and implements effective, integrated business-to-business marketing communications programs that strategically map back to clients' business goals and deliver high-impact results.

Lizanne has worked in both agency and corporate environments. Before establishing her own consulting practice, Lizanne was at an award-winning PR agency, Strategic Objectives, where she managed the Interac Association account and exceeded client expectations by delivering unprecedented results within an extremely short time frame.

Prior to this role, Lizanne was at Ingram Micro where she led the Fortune 500 Company's marketing services department and developed targeted marketing communications programs for IT vendors and resellers in Canada. In addition, Lizanne has held senior communications roles at Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., Porter Novelli Canada, and Hummingbird Communications.

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Michelle Magee

Michelle Magee is a senior communications consultant specializing in media relations in the U.S. and Canada. She has worked in the communications industry since 1995 and continues to focus on maximizing media coverage for her clients.

Michelle is well known for her creative pitches, her commitment to her clients, her strong work ethic and her ability to achieve outstanding results.

Throughout her career, Michelle has worked on both the corporate and agency sides of the business. Michelle works with and has consulted for a number of independent PR agencies, developing and executing strategic and highly targeted media plans for their business and consumer clients. She has also worked in the oil and gas industry where she was instrumental in the management and execution of various key sponsorship programs and special events for PanCanadian Petroleum (now Encana). Michelle started her career with Hill & Knowlton Canada, and her clients have been among the best brands in consumer packaged goods, technology, associations, health care, fashion, travel and home decor.

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Sumeeta Kohli

Sumeeta Kohli has over 12 years experience in the telecommunications and IT industry. Her particular area of focus is strategically-driven B2B and B2C marketing programs and campaign management in key verticals such as retail, partner and c-commerce based marketing. Throughout her career, she has developed extensive expertise in strategic development, management and execution of global partner online portals and marketing program management, with a focus on acquisition and retention-focused campaigns.

Sumeeta was most recently a Senior Program Manager with Research in Motion (RIM), where she was responsible for global marketing management. Prior to that, she was a Small Business Channel Manager with Rogers, where she led strategic development and execution on small business distribution channels to drive profitability and performance growth. Sumeeta began her career with North America’s top IT Distributor, driving both b2b and b2C reseller-based marketing programs and campaigns.

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Terry Hrynyshyn

With over 25 years of business communications experience, Terry has provided strategic counsel to communications and marketing teams in both Fortune 500 companies and start-ups – from Hewlett-Packard to simplyaudiobooks.com.

Terry is a creative problem solver. He provides excellent conceptual ability to integrate marketing initiatives and move from concept to market profitably. He’s a top-notch written and verbal communicator, motivated by results achievement.
As the first contract hire for BenchMark Communications Inc. in 1993, Terry was instrumental in the early growth, consistent profitability and ultimate success of this marketing communications consulting company that grew from a one-person shop to the fifth largest PR agency in Canada according to PRWeek magazine 2001 rankings. Terry was involved in the sale of BenchMark to the Omnicom Group Inc. in 1998; the merger with Canada Porter Novelli in 2000; and the launch of two separate, subsidiary communications/PR companies in 2002.

Terry was in print publishing prior to entering the world of public relations and business communications. In the span of 15 years, he was a writer, executive editor and publisher for various magazines including Government Business, CAD/CAM & Robotics and ComputerData, to name but a few.

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