Highwire PR Continues Strong Growth and Expands to East Coast

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Apr 22, 2015) - Highwire PR, a modern communications agency designed for innovative companies, announced today the opening of its New York office and continued growth and momentum with new senior hires and client wins.

The opening of a New York City office places Highwire at the hub of the media and advertising markets, as well as the budding tech and startup scenes. The new location will help the agency better serve existing clients and deepen relationships with influencers on the East Coast.

"Opening a New York office is a natural next step for us as we continue to increase our East Coast presence with new clients and staff," said Highwire PR co-founder Kathleen Gratehouse. "New York's fast-growing startup scene and established media base make our office there a resource that will benefit our entire agency and client base."

To support the agency's expansion and growth, Highwire has added several new senior executives to the agency's management team:

Kim Paone, senior vice president, will lead the New York office for the agency. She has 18 years' experience managing corporate and product public relations campaigns for a wide range of technology and financial services companies, including publicly-traded global entities and startups in the enterprise security, consumer electronics, mobile advertising and fintech industries, among others. For the last seven years, Kim served as a senior vice president at a corporate communications agency where she developed client thought leadership campaigns and helped companies navigate major milestones such as funding announcements, IPOs and M&A activity.

Shannon Gomes, vice president, will lead the agency's burgeoning new consumer food/food tech practice. Shannon has 15 years of PR experience, including most recently managing the U.S. and international public relations program at Williams-Sonoma, launching new initiatives such as Agrarian, Open Kitchen and re-launching Williams-Sonoma Home. Previously, Shannon ran consumer PR and influencer programs at Ketchum in San Francisco representing consumer packaged goods clients such as Häagen-Dazs and food commodity boards such as the California Strawberry Commission.

Elliott Suthers, vice president, brings more than 10 years of communications and policy experience drawn from a variety of sectors and environments including enterprise technology, telecommunications, aerospace and cybersecurity, with clients ranging from Fortune-100 corporations to early-stage startups. Before joining the Highwire team, Elliott led a boutique corporate communications agency based in New York City after serving on the communications and policy teams of two presidential and senatorial campaigns.

Jill Reed, vice president, has 15 years of experience in high-tech public relations for companies in big data, cloud services, network infrastructure, IT security and open source software. A hands-on leader, Jill collaborates closely with her clients and oversees PR strategy and execution. She is also experienced at combining the power of digital content with traditional PR activities to spark engagement, drive actions that are measurable and impact buying behavior for her clients.

Shari Foldes, vice president, has more than a decade of experience in communications for consumer and technology brands. Prior to joining Highwire, Shari was head of marketing for DFJ, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, where she provided strategic PR guidance to the firm and its portfolio companies spanning consumer, enterprise and disruptive technologies.

The new hires will help support Highwire's rapidly expanding client base, including leading enterprise technology and security companies including Actian, Dtex, Cylance, OWASP and Zscaler. Highwire's consumer practice has also added several new clients including California Strawberry Commission, Brioche Pasquier U.S. and Zolt.

About Highwire PR
Highwire is a modern public relations agency designed for disruptive companies. Our roots in journalism and Silicon Valley give us the drive, imagination and experience to create meaningful business results for our clients through smart communications programs. Highwire serves the spectrum of technology clients from consumer apps to cloud infrastructure, healthcare IT to security, as well as consumer and food from offices in San Francisco, Chicago and New York along with strong partnerships around the world. For more information, please visit www.highwirepr.com or @highwirepr.