“Colleen and her team have proved during our 3 years of collaboration that they have a strong technology expertise linked with a wide PR and marketing network. This was essential for Chiaro Networks to help to gain inroads with press and analysts. The strong professional business acumen from Colleen is an example for her industry!”

RONALD CORNELISSE (MBT)

Director Product Marketing Europe,
Chiaro Networks

COLLEEN MARTELL

Colleen Martell, owner and principal, has worked in high-tech public relations since the early 1980s, for both PR agencies as well as companies. She determined that there was a better way to bring clients together with editors and analysts, so she started Martell Communications in 1994. Since then, Colleen has used her superior management skills to lead PR programs, projects and teams for consumer electronics and high tech clients such Dolby Labs, SVTC Technologies, Etymotic Research, Analog Devices, VISA International, Mohr-Davidow Ventures, Borland, and dozens of other technology companies.

Before starting Martell Communications, Colleen was vice president of Rourke & Company, a Boston-based PR agency, for which she established the San Jose, Calif., office and brought new business to the agency. She worked with her clients to increase exposure with financial analysts, market research analysts, and the trade and business press.

Prior to Rourke & Company, Colleen managed a business unit as a group account manager at Franson, Hagerty & Associates, a PR agency in San Jose. She spent four years with Franson, working with numerous high tech clients in the graphics, networking, telecommunications, semiconductor, and software markets.

On the corporate side, Colleen worked with two semiconductor companies, National Semiconductor and Integrated Device Technology (IDT), and a networking company, Vitalink Communications Corp. (now part of Network Systems). At Vitalink and IDT, she built the marketing communications departments, managing the advertising, public relations, trade show and literature functions. She started her PR career at National Semiconductor, spending three years there handling product publicity.

Colleen holds a bachelor's degree in public relations, with a minor in business, from San Jose State University. She has also been an instructor in public relations at the University. Colleen lives in the Bay Area, close to the heart of Silicon Valley.

“Colleen and her team have deep experience in the areas of Marketing, Marcomm, and PR. They immediately contributed to improving the visibility in the industry of the startup where I was CEO by getting us placed in the right publications and helping us to find the best conferences and shows to participate in”

PAUL HOFFMAN

President and CEO of
Amulaire Thermal Technology

LISA FIGLIOLI

A consummate “connector,” Lisa Figlioli has a knack for helping you tell your story to media outlets that influence the people you want to reach. She’ll arrange the press tour of your dreams, place your opinion columns, and find homes for your success stories and technical articles. Lisa will make sure your trade show press-meeting dance card is full, your product-review program is in motion, and your speaking calendar is booked well in advance.

In addition to her natural talents as a publicist, Lisa is also an experienced PR strategist and manager who develops, directs and implements campaigns, conducts communications research, and writes articles, news releases and other press kit materials.

Prior to becoming a consultant in the early ‘90s, Lisa held senior positions in four high-tech PR agencies -- Miller/Shadwick, Franson, Hi-Tech/Shandwick and Jennings — and also worked in-house at Arthur Andersen, Intel and Boston University. Her clients have included some of the most innovative and well-known companies in high tech, such as IBM, Fujitsu, British Telecom, Sun Microsystems, The Learning Company, Advanced RISC Machines (ARM), and Xilinx.

With her Martell Communications colleagues, Lisa has supported Dolby Labs, SVTC Technologies, Etymotic Research, Analog Devices, VISA International, Mohr-Davidow, Borland, and dozens of other technology companies.

Lisa is a long-time member of the Public Relations Society of America, and she holds a master's in PR from Boston University and a bachelor's in journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She lives and works in Greenwich, Conn., 30 minutes from Manhattan.

“Colleen and the Martell group worked with us at Think Outside. They helped make the Stowaway Keyboard one of the hottest and most coveted handheld accessory at that time. The awards that we won, the press that was written and the "buzz" for the product was all due to their continued hard work, excellent industry contacts and persistence. And as a big boost, we had fun while doing it. I can't say enough about Colleen and her team!”

GEORGE GERWE

Vice President of Marketing,
Think Outside

AMANDA ILES

For more than two decades, Amanda Iles has been finding and telling compelling stories about science and technology. As a freelance writer and communication consultant, her experience spans nearly all facets of the technology industry, including semiconductors, networking and communications, computing platforms, system and application software, consumer electronics, data center systems, games, and biotechnology.

Amanda helps companies crystallize and express their unique brand and identity so they can gain exposure for their products, services, and innovations; establish relationships vital to achieving their goals; and explain to customers, the media, analysts, and other influencers, supply chain partners, and the general public not only what the organization does, but why anyone should care.

Throughout her career, Amanda has worked with clients ranging from small start-ups to household names such as Apple, HP, Intel, and Microsoft. As part of the Martell Communications team, she has written for Amulaire, Analog Devices, Atmosphere Networks, Chiaro, Dolby Labs, Etymotic Research, Mohr-Davidow Ventures, SVTC Technologies, Think Outside, and numerous other companies.

Prior to becoming a freelancer, Amanda was Associate Partner of The Talbott Group, a small agency in Palo Alto that provided PR services for biotechnology companies and writing services for other high-technology companies. Earlier, she was a writer for Regis McKenna Inc., a pioneering high-tech PR firm in Silicon Valley, and the life sciences reporter/editor for the News Bureau of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before starting her science writing career, she worked for two years as a research lab assistant in a developmental neurobiology lab at UC San Diego.

Amanda earned a bachelor’s degree in biology (emphasizing molecular/cellular biology) with a minor in philosophy from UC San Diego and a graduate certificate in science writing from UC Santa Cruz. She is currently based in Ashland, Oregon, midway between California’s Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest’s Silicon Forest.