Who
Meet Our Team
Founder & CEO Steven H. Parker
Steven H. Parker
Founder and CEO Steven H. Parker applies his diverse, award-winning talents as a former journalist, start-up marketing director, senior consultant and agency principal to the challenge of creating successful platforms for emerging companies and market leaders alike. Nationally known for his expertise in strategic communications consulting, Parker is an expert at helping companies to articulate their stories in new, compelling and imaginative ways that provide relevant context to customers and prospects. He has been actively engaged in social media for the past seven years, including especially Twitter and LinkedIn. He blogs on content marketing here at The Hungry Eye and on the fundamental dynamics of marketing at Marketing Dissector. Active online since 1983, he’s a pioneer in utilizing online techniques for media relations and direct marketing and has been involved in launching successful Internet start-ups since 1994. He was the second marketing hire at Phoenix Technologies, the company that launched the IBM PC-compatible industry and Wintel standard with its BIOS software and also at Object Design, makers of a high-performance object-oriented database system acquired by Progress Software. Object Design was ranked #1 on the Inc. 500 list as the fastest growing privately-held company in America.
A veteran of scores of high-profile software and Internet marketing campaigns, Parker counts among his clients everyone from two-person start-ups to BBN, the company that built the Internet, to IBM, AT&T, Lotus and Xerox. Among the many tech industry firsts he has introduced are the first commercial Java application, the first HTML editor (which became Microsoft FrontPage), the first streaming, interactive Web animation system, the first IT asset management system, the first online classified ad network, the first XML-enabled Web development tool, the first JavaScript editor and the first Gigabit router.
Prior to founding Parker Communications in 2002, Parker for 10 years was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of The Launch Company, a mid-size high tech PR and marketing agency based in Boston with offices in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. Launch gained a national reputation for high quality, award-winning work among clients and more than 40 venture capital firms. Parker served as principal strategist, marketing consultant and chief writer and editor for all forms of media. Launch won Software Marketing Journal‘s national award for Best PR Campaign for a Start-Up Software Company for its work with NetBalance.
While a Vice President and Senior Consultant in Hill & Knowlton’s Advanced Technology Division, Parker he served as technical strategist on the launches of Lotus Notes, Digital DECWindows, Xerox Ventura Publisher and the mother of the open source movement, the Open Software Foundation (OSF). Parker and his fellow H&K team members and won the PRSA Silver Anvil Award for the OSF work. Parker began his career as an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. During six years as a community journalist, he was honored three times by the Massachusetts Press Association, including a News Story of the Year award for an investigative series that exposed illegal strip mining of public park land. He also earned journalistic honors from Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Maine Press Association. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Maine at Orono.
Pamela M. Foote
Pamela M. Foote is a Senior Associate of Parker Communications, specializing in account management and media and analyst relations. She has over 25 years of experience in public relations, strategic communications planning and journalism, with a focus during the past 20 years on providing communications services to high technology companies. Prior to her association with Parker Communications, she worked both as an independent PR practitioner and for six years with The Launch Company as a senior consultant and media/analyst relations specialist.
Prior to Launch, she was Director of Public Relations for Stardent Computer. Foote joined Stardent from Hill and Knowlton, Inc., where she last served as Senior Vice President and Management Supervisor at H&K’s Advanced Technology Division in Waltham, Mass., at the time the largest high tech PR operation in the U.S. In her eight years with Hill and Knowlton, she led a staff of more than 25 PR professionals and developed and executed public relations programs for clients such as Digital Equipment, Lotus Development, BBN, Phoenix Technologies, Andersen Consulting and Keane. Foote began her career as a newswriter and assignment editor for WEEI-AM news radio in Boston, later serving as Assistant Press Secretary to Massachusetts Governor Edward J. King. She holds a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University, and an undergraduate degree from Connecticut College.
Tony Priano
Tony Priano is a Senior Associate of Parker Communications with over 25 years of experience, specializing in research and writing, creative services, strategic consulting and video production. Prior to his association with Parker Communications, he worked both as a freelance writer and for nine years with The Launch Company as a senior consultant, creative director and senior writer. While at Launch, he produced media events, videos, audio teleconferences and marketing collateral, in addition to PR writing. In his capacity as senior writer and editor, he developed customer testimonials and references for clients, in addition to researching and writing press releases, press kits and by-lined articles. He has also acted as creative director on projects involving company and product naming, tagline and message development and related strategic research. With the Launch account team, he won Software Magazine’s award for Best Software Start-Up PR Campaign in the nation in 1998 for the launch of NetBalance. In 2002, he won two awards from the Society of Technical Communication for materials written for the Dept. of Transportation.
Priano’s career as a communications professional began in 1974. For 10 years, he worked as a film and television writer-producer, including as Post Production Supervisor at the NOVA public television science documentary series and as Director of On-Air Promotion at PBS station WQED in Pittsburgh. He has spent more than 17 years as a marketing consultant, writer, and public relations specialist for technology companies. In addition to his PR work, he has developed original Web content for both America Online and Digital Equipment Corporation/Compaq. As Marketing Communications Manager for LaserData, Inc., he launched the first PC/Windows-based document imaging systems in the domestic market. Priano has written fiction since 1970. He has won numerous literary awards and has taught his original creative writing course in the Boston area. He graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech.
Carol Wolicki
Carol Wolicki is a Senior Associate of Parker Communications, specializing in marketing communications, strategic consulting, program development and social media services. A PR professional with significant experience in marketing high tech products at both start-ups and fast growth companies, she was most recently the senior director of marketing communications for Unica Corporation, a $120M marketing software developer based in Waltham, MA. She is an active blogger, social media activist and SEO and email marketing expert. Previously she held positions as director of marketing communications for ECI Telecom‘s Data Networking Division, senior VP of PR for Kelly Habib John Integrated Marketing, and VP of Nigberg Corporation. She founded Chrysalis Communications Inc., a successful agency focused on building customer loyalty and engagement programs for technology companies. Her tenure at Banyan Systems included a two year assignment based in London where she was responsible for all the company’s marketing communications efforts in the UK and across Europe.
Wolicki’s experience in technology covers a broad range of sectors including networking software, telecom, security, enterprise applications, e-commerce, marketing automation, emarketing, systems software and embedded technologies.She introduced the first high tech PR curriculum as a professor at Boston University. She is the recipient of the New England Publicity Club Bellringer Award for her work in high technology public relations. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and a founding member of PRSA’s High Tech Task Force. She has an MS degree in corporate communications from Boston University and a BA cum laude degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
Michelle Allard McMahon
Michelle Allard McMahon is a Senior Associate of Parker Communications, specializing in media and analyst relations and account management services. Her role on client project teams includes proactive media and analyst relations outreach, media and analyst research, project management, consulting and also writing and editing. Prior to Parker Communications, Allard McMahon was associated with The Launch Company as an Account Supervisor for four years. She joined that agency with over seven years’ experience in high tech public relations. At Launch she was responsible for day-to-day operations and was client liaison for her accounts in the areas of e-commerce, Internet infrastructure, and venture capital. While at Launch, Allard McMahon focused on becoming an expert in the areas of Web and audio teleconferences, sponsor and partnership development and event management.
Prior to joining Launch, Allard McMahon worked at Boston Communications Worldwide where she was an account manager, leading two of the company’s largest clients. During her six years at the company, she led more than 30 product launches and consulted on several successful industry initiatives. Allard McMahon holds Master of Arts degrees in international communications and international relations from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. She also held a one-year graduate position at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria, while continuing studies in German and international relations at the Universität Wien.
Mary Biscaldi Engle
Mary Biscaldi Engle is the Art Director for Parker Communications. She adds an impressive visual component to a wide variety of client projects, including advertising, direct mail, email marketing, print collateral, corporate identity, trade show exhibit and interactive projects. With 17 years’ experience in the graphic design and marketing communications field, Engle is responsible for all aspects of design and production. She earned her BA from Framingham State College in art studio, graphic design, media communications and photography.
Prior to Parker Communications, Engle served as Art Director for The Launch Company, a high-tech public relations and marketing firm, where she supervised the art department staff and production. Engle also served as Production Director with The Brandon Group, a marketing and advertising firm with a diverse client base that included not only technology clients, but also companies in the manufacturing, automotive and sports industries. Before Brandon, Engle was with Treasure Chest Advertising, a major production house based in Windsor Locks, CT, working with several major national retail clients. Her experience also includes substantial newspaper art department involvement, having developed the art department within The Sentinel & Enterprise newspaper in central Massachusetts and creating national ad campaigns for Thomson Newspapers. She is also the former Art Director for Creative Associates Advertising and Marketing, a central Massachusetts-based agency.
