Penny Pfaelzer's background includes numerous successes in national media relations, reputation management, consumer affairs, political campaigns and strategic positioning.

 

Ms. Pfaelzer has been a public relations practitioner in Phoenix on and off for 30+ years and has worked in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as the Valley of the Sun.  She founded one of Arizona's largest PR consultancies that produced successful campaigns for Korean Air, Southwest Airlines, Valley Metro Rail, United Phoenix Firefighters, Penn Racquet Sports and the City of Phoenix, among others.  She sold the agency to Cramer-Krasselt PR, Chicago.

 

During her professional tenure, Ms. Pfaelzer has been a consultant with major international public relations agencies including Ogilvy PR, Hill & Knowlton, Ketchum and Shandwick.

She also was Manager of Media Relations for Avon Products, Inc. and served as public relations director of an Arizona-based supermarket chain.

 

Ms. Pfaelzer's common-sense counsel and expertise has made her one of the "go to" advisors when it comes to reputation management and strategic positioning.

 

Amy Goldsmith is the founder and president of GK Communications, Inc., a Los Angeles-based public relations consultancy with specialized skills in corporate communications.

 

An award-winning practitioner, Ms. Goldsmith has worked with some the world's best-known companies creating and implementing internal and external public relations and marketing campaigns.

 

Ms. Goldsmith is an expert in food-related PR and has provided counsel for a variety of products and persons including ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, Phil Lempert aka the SupermarketGuru, and Praim Group, a food and confections consultancy, among others.

 

Ms. Goldsmith has worked with several of Los Angeles's largest and most successful PR agencies including Ogilvy PR, where she worked on accounts ranging from technology and healthcare to sporting equipment, automotive and political issue campaigns.

 

Goldsmith has won several awards including a PRo Award from the Public Communicators of Los Angeles and an Ace Award from the International Association Business Communicators. Goldsmith graduated with a degree in political science from UCLA.

 

 

Paul Dean has been an award-winning journalist for more than three decades. He has worked as an investigative reporter, war correspondent, daily columnist, and syndicated automotive writer, and has won more than 50 writing awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes and National Headliner Award.

 

A native of England, Dean wrote for the London Daily Herald, covering riots in Hungary and IRA attacks in Northern Ireland. He moved to the United States in 1963 and the Arizona Republic in Phoenix; first as general assignment writer, then investigative reporter, finally a war correspondent in Vietnam before becoming the Republic's daily columnist.

 

In 1979, Dean joined the Los Angeles Times as a lifestyle feature writer. He was on writing teams awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of the Los Angeles riots and the Northridge earthquake. He was that newspaper's automotive reviewer for 15 years and received the National Headliner honor for his automotive column.

 

In 1999, Dean became publisher and editorial director of the Boston-based Robb Report magazine, the world's foremost luxury lifestyle magazine. He currently is that magazine's senior correspondent and writes about luxury automobiles.

 

 

 

Betty Rauch is a marketing and communications professional with a consulting practice focused on marketing, re-positioning, branding, and Internet strategies for non- and for-profit organizations.

 

Her clients include such diverse organizations as the National Council on Economic Education, the National League for Nursing, Seedco, the International Center for Photography, the United Way of New York City, GuardHill Financial Corporation, the Securities Industry Foundation for Economic Education, and Independent Curators International.

 

Ms. Rauch develops marketing plans; directs re-branding and re-positioning programs; develops and executes advertising, public and community relations projects; and manages consumer and competitive research.

 

Ms. Rauch spent over a decade in advertising management, working on consumer package goods and services. She directed the marketing and business development functions for three start-up endeavors, and was Vice President of Marketing for North America for a major travel and leisure company.

 

Ms. Rauch has a B.A. in history from Wellesley College and an MBA in marketing from NYU Stern School of Business.