Team

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Are you looking for a winning public relations and marketing team?  Read more about how two Southern California gals honed their skills, met each other and formed the enthusiastic, fast-paced trio that is Team Innova!  We give our all to each client and our results speak for themselves.

• Read about Amy C.
• Read about Melissa
• Read about Amy O.

Amy

Amy Chilla -  Partner – Amy brings a strong background in Strategic & Social Media Marketing, Public Relations and Investor Relations to the Innova Communications team.  She offers significant experience in public relations and event planning, media relations, project management as well as marketing activities such as business plans, ad copy, white papers, etc. Her industry specialties include telecommunications, high technology, outsourcing, finance, translation, non-profit and luxury consumer goods.

Since 1999, Amy has held many consulting positions for companies in many industries. Her public relations efforts have helped land clients in prominent publications like Crain’s New York, BusinessWeek, Los Angeles Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Japan Vogue, The Los Angeles Daily News, PC Magazine, Institutional Investor, and Forbes to name just a few.

While her roots began in the financial world, during the growth of her consulting business the scope of clients has grown to include public relations and marketing clients in many different industries.  Amy also became a consultant for an internet marketing firm, corecubed, in 2001.  Through this relationship, she has worked on many public relations and marketing projects and that is where she met Melissa as they collaborated on a project together.  It was kismet!

Starting her career at boutique Financial Public Relations firm in Newport Beach, CA, she honed her skills and assisted in the packaging of client companies, wrote corporate materials such as drafts of press releases, business plans and various other marketing materials. In 1996, she was recruited by a Financial Public Relations firm and became the Manager of Corporate Relations for The Michelson Group, Inc.  While at this firm, Amy was solely responsible for the packaging and promotion of all client companies to the financial community, working one on one with the client to develop a unique public relations program geared specifically for each company. Under her successful PR and IR programs, many of her clients saw significant stock price increases and gains in customer awareness.

Amy moved on to hold the Director of Marketing position with a thirty-year old venture capital firm, Ventana Capital Management.  With a need for extensive rebranding and positioning in order to begin U.S. fundraising campaign, Amy embarked on a public relations and marketing campaign to reposition the company within the venture capital industry.  She was able to secure numerous speaking positions, board appointments and advisory positions for the managing partners and formulated strategic plan to launch new fund to potential investors as well as established effective communication plan to existing limited partners/investors.

Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Business Management from the University of California, Irvine.  She enjoys baking, volunteering at her local children’s hospital and shopping!

Melissa
Melissa Gillespie – Partner – Melissa is a public relations and marketing communications specialist with extensive experience in media relations and strategic planning.  Her experience includes developing targeted campaigns designed to garner media exposure via radio, television, print and online outlets.  Melissa has significant experience in event planning, project management and marketing. Her industry specialties include telecommunications, high technology, outsourcing, sports business, education, medical and government.

Melissa’s current campaigns include serving as the lead public relations contact for a national print magazine targeted to professional athletes, an international research and consulting firm focused on globalization and localization, and an Internet retailer specializing in customized handbags. She has secured positive media exposure for these clients in multiple major outlets, including: Internet Retailer, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, SportsBusiness Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, Fox Sports Radio, InfoWorld, ComputerWorld, Upscale, CIO magazine, Teen magazine, and many more.

From 1999 to 2001, Melissa was the Senior Communications Specialist, CRTV for Cox Communications in Phoenix, Arizona.  While at Cox, she developed training programs and presentations for field employees on company messages, programs and pricing and sales information. Melissa had extensive public speaking duties to groups of 10-600 field technicians on a daily basis.  She also created all of the key internal and external messages via Internet, Intranet, employee newsletter, customer newsletter, customer notifications, Tombstone ads, channel crawls, email, internal TV network and employee job aids.

Prior to Cox Communications, Melissa held several positions with OTS, Inc. (Formerly TDI, Inc.).  Receiving many accolades for her accomplishments from 1997 to 1999, she achieved great success as OTS’ Project Manager for Building Entrance Services. She was responsible for developing and managing the Building Entrance Services division, which involved representing large commercial property owners in the negotiation, implementation, and management of telecommunication networks. Melissa developed process controls, interfaced with telecommunication service providers, evaluated proposals and technical solutions from the service providers and provided on-going communications with Client.

Melissa’s achievements are numerous but one that stands out is her tenure as an intern for the United States Mission to the UN in 1995, where she researched and evaluated visa accreditation issues; conducted research, preparation and drafting of cables; press conference and debriefing assistance as well as the preparation and attendance of USUN events and sessions.

Melissa attended United States International University for their International Relations – Int’l Communications Focus Masters program.  Additionally, she holds a Bachelor of Arts, Communications Studies (Minors in Spanish and English) from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.  She enjoys running, taking her two boys on adventures and traveling!

AmyO

Amy O’Connell – Social Media Manager - Amy brings years of experience being social to Innova Communications.  Her years in the hospitality industry working in various IT capacities created the perfect foundation of using technology to communicate what people really want to hear.  Translating that into pithy comments and witty conversations on the social media scene is what she does best.  Her skills at driving brand affinity through social media engagement have resulted in driving traffic to client websites and converting “Tweeple” and Facebook users into customers.  Using the latest in technology platforms, Amy can hone in on the best ways to converse with a company’s audience and build brand loyalty through social media.

Amy also assists with industry research and other communication projects for Innova’s clients.  She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Communications.  With her two children, husband and family fuzzball Charlie, Amy juggles it all!