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Julia Hutton
Founder
Julia Hutton has been a public relations professional most of her career which is now in its 27th year. Ms Hutton is results oriented an d offers a proven track record of solid accomplishments. She has represented clients from a variety of industries including consumer high – tech including wireless, entertainment, animals and pets, sports, real estate, hospitality, agriculture, non-profit organizations of many kinds, and more.
While working at a leading high-tech PR firm in San Diego, Hutton was promoted to a position that was created with Julia’s special skills in mind. Her title? "O.T.B. Project Manager" - O.T.B. standing for out-of-the-box. When an account needed a "different" approach to get the results, Hutton was assigned the project responsibility. She has an uncanny ability to create unusual and interesting stories that generate media interest and coverage.
Julia is described as having an, “insane work ethic” and amazing attention to detail with impeccable follow through. She enjoys and uses a unique sense of humor and charisma to an advantage. "After all," she says, "editors get hundreds of boring emails and phone calls from PR types daily. We have to make them want to put their red pencils behind their ears, take a breath, and have an informative chat (laced with a tad of humor), about this wonderful solution we are calling about.
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Pete Howmiller
CEO
Pete Howmiller graduated from Northern Arizona University with a degree in Business Management. He recently returned from Costa Rica where he worked for the Sales and Marketing department at Four Seasons Resort at Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica. He brings with him a natural ability to work harmoniously with people toward a win-win for all. He has a great sense of humor and an excellent work ethic.
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Alice Giannola
Executive Vice President
Alice Giannola relocated to Arizona from Michigan where she began her career in the financial services industry. As a financial analyst, Alice spent the past eight years with an accounting firm in Phoenix where she provided consulting and accounting services to over thirty clients. Alice has also held key management positions in the healthcare and service industry and has developed a diverse background that includes expense management, financial reporting, process improvement, personnel management and training. Alice brings extensive experience and leadership to all areas of the day-to-day management of operations and personnel at Orca |
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Kirstin Sanders
Creative Director
Kirstin Sanders brings a diverse background of experience to Orca Communications. Her past experience includes graphic design, special events coordination and public relations. She has secured great exposure for the clients of Orca Communications, and has had the opportunity to work with highly regarded publications and television media in the industry. She enjoys collaborating with the media and thrives on its exciting and fast paced nature. Kirstin loves to travel and has experienced many exotic locations throughout Asia and Europe. She is a graduate of Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications with minors in both public relations and travel and tourism management |
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Wendy Roberts
Senior Publicist
Wendy Roberts is a skilled marketing and public relations professional and comes to Orca with a career background primarily in magazine publishing. As the marketing and promotions director at Razor, a national men’s lifestyle magazine, Wendy was in charge of managing a team responsible for the publication’s national marketing agenda. Wendy has orchestrated major cross-marketing campaigns with brands such as Universal Pictures, NBC Sports, Major League Baseball, and Sony Music. She has produced and executed many high-profile events, including a private release party for HBO’s The Sopranos in honor of the entire cast; the U.S. premier and after-party of the Academy Award-winning film Crash; and the U.S. launch of Ford Motor Company’s concept car, Ford GT, at The Kentucky Derby. While at Razor, she also held the position of public relations manager and was in charge of publicizing the magazine’s feature articles, celebrity interviews, and editorial executives on a monthly basis. She has secured press coverage on some of the most respected television and print media in the country. Wendy has also served as a marketing director for Scottsdale Food magazine and, most recently, as marketing manager for Dermacare Laser & Skin Care Clinics. Wendy holds a B.A. in media communication from The College of Charleston in South Carolina. She lives in Scottsdale with her husband and their son, Gage.
Wendy is inspired by the ingenuity and ambition of Orca’s diverse clients and is thrilled to be a part of the team that promotes these products to the media.
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Lacy Gambee
Publicist
Lacy Gambee has joined Orca Communications after working in the television news industry. Most recently, she worked as an Investigative Producer for the NBC Affiliate in Tucson, Arizona. There she also served as the Special Projects Producer where she coordinated media coverage for various companies and organizations around the country. Lacy graduated from the University of Arizona Honor’s College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science. She also received a Certified Public Manager’s Degree from Arizona State University. Lacy’s contacts and inside understanding of a newsroom provide her with many valuable assets. It allows her to understand how and when the media want to receive information. Reading press releases in a newsroom has provided her the distinct advantage of figuring out angles the media will be interested in covering. Lacy understands that a client’s success is Orca’s success and delivering results has always been a top priority for her.
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Gretchen Pahia
Publicist
Gretchen Pahia is a media insider. She spent more than decade in television newsrooms around the USA, producing newscasts. As a TV news producer, she covered life changing events, including the 9-11 attacks. In fact, she was working in the control room, producing her newscast when the first plane hit the World Trade Center Towers. She has also covered exciting and uplifting events, such as producing four hours of live TV coverage during New Year's Eve in Las Vegas!
Gretchen began her career in Las Vegas as an associate producer at KLAS, the CBS affiliate. She quickly moved her way up in the ranks to the producer of the coveted 6pm newscast. Then, it was on to Portland, Oregon where she worked as the 10pm Producer for KPTV, the FOX station. There she won an Emmy Award for best newscast in the Pacific Northwest! After spending a year in the rainy land, she and her husband decided to move back to her hometown of Phoenix, AZ, where she worked for the #1 rated independent TV station, KTVK.
After all those years of live TV, Gretchen decided that she was tired of reporting all the bad stuff going on in the world, and wanted to focus on the happier things, so she changed careers and came to work at Orca! Gretchen says she loves working in Public Relations, supporting great people and great ideas! Pahia and her husband Bryan live in Phoenix and have two children, A.C. & Dane (their initials are A.C., D.C.-- yes that was done on purpose! |
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Tana Siebold
Publicist
Tana Siebold takes the plunge into Orca Communications with a varied and extensive background that includes elementary education, sales, personal training, massage therapy and most recently, admissions coordination. Having grown up overseas in Saudi Arabia and traveled all over the world, she brings a unique multi-cultural perspective to the Orca team. She is thrilled to be a part of such an exciting company, delving deeper into her love of Public Relations, and finally putting her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado to good use.
Tana currently resides in Sarasota, FL, where she continues to stay active and pursue her passion for health and fitness by running the pristine beaches as often as possible.
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Krista Loew
Publicist
Krista Loew is a former television news anchor and award-winning reporter who brings 15 years of broadcast experience to Orca Communications. She’s worked in television markets including in Knoxville, Tennessee, Phoenix, and Tucson, Arizona where she received countless awards for her weekly crime-stopper reports.
The years she spent reporting the news, hosting programs, and building contacts make Krista a true insider in the news business. She considers herself an expert when it comes to sparking media interest in people and products.
Krista was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She’s a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. She lives in Phoenix with her husband and two young daughters. |
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Laura McGeary
HR/IT/Financial Assistant
Laura McGeary is self driven individual with a variety of talents in the business and finance arena. She has spent the last 8 years of her career managing 25 valley locations for a local mortgage company. Her primary job functions included overseeing day to day operations along with the corporate Human Resource, Accounting, and Branch Coordinator staff. She also planned quarterly corporate events and company mixers. She is a dynamic public speaker and has led several training seminars. Laura has also set up many small businesses creating turn key operations for the owners, handling licensing, bonding, and accounting set up.
Laura lives in Phoenix with her 8 year old son and enjoys watching him play baseball. She also hopes to run her first marathon this fall. |
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Sean Corgan
IT Specialist
Sean Corgan has a diverse background in Information Technology. He has worked for over seven years in the industry, and has been involved with Information Technology his entire life. His past experience involved being a master technician for a major computer retailer. He has a CompTIA A+ certification and is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. He is currently working on a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at Arizona State University. |
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Julie Simon
Senior Account Executive
Julie Simon brings to Orca Communications 10 plus years of experience in television news. For more than a decade she was on the front lines covering dangerous wildfires on the Nevada/California border, Hurricane Rita on the Texas coast, and rebuilding efforts for a new generation in Communist Vietnam On a lighter side, she's covered tryouts for American Idol and MTV's Real World. She's interviewed such notables as former President Clinton, Lance Armstrong, and Jay Leno.
Julie started her career in 1998 as a field producer at the KVBC the NBC affiliate in her hometown of Las Vegas (people often ask if growing up in Las Vegas she lived in a house or a hotel- the answer is a house)! She then moved from behind the camera to in front of it as a reporter at KRNV, the NBC affiliate in Reno. She moved to KEYE in 2002, the CBS affiliate in her adopted hometown of Austin, Texas. In 2004, she won the Associated Press Texas Reporter of the Year award. While in college at American University in Washington D.C., Julie worked for CNN at The White House and for the FOX program, America's Most Wanted.
She's excited about working in Public Relations, has a good sense of what kind of people and products have media appeal, and how to pitch to editors and producers for optimal client results.
Julie and her husband Ben live in Austin and welcomed their first child, a son, Elias Kurt in late October 2008 |
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Valery Lodato
Senior Account Executive
Valery Lodato brings 12 years of local and national news media experience to the Orca Team.
An Emmy award-winning television producer, Valery joined Orca after working as the Senior Executive Producer at KPHO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Phoenix. There she supervised the daily news product and dozens of producers and reporters.
Before her move to Phoenix, Valery spent several exciting years in Washington DC: first, producing the late news at WUSA-TV, the CBS Affiliate then to USA TODAY, as the Deputy Managing Editor for the newspaper’s television unit. One of Valery’s key tasks: develop and coordinate coverage each day with print counterparts in the News, Money, Sports and Life sections.
Valery is a graduate of Boston University's College of Communications and a native Chicagoan.
A mother of two young children: Tyler and Sydney, she and her husband live in Phoenix.
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Joanne Sgro
Business Development
Joanne Sgro is a regularly featured television, fitness expert and motivational speaker. In addition to being a Certified Personal Trainer, she is an Emmy Nominated Health and Fitness Reporter and Emmy Award Winning Consumer Producer. A Philadelphia native, she has worked for and been featured on the Philadelphia affiliates of NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC and Comcast. She has also done some work as a Product Host for QVC and has been featured on Fine Living Network. Joanne has been on the cover of Woman’s World Magazine, in Good Housekeeping Magazine, Oxygen Magazine as well as the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer. She was recently featured on the cover of First For Women Magazine and in Family Circle Magazine.
She is a graduate of Villanova University and currently resides in the Phoenix, Arizona area with her fiancé, Scott. Her hobbies include teaching group exercise classes, singing, dancing and cooking her original, healthy alternative recipes. |
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Claudia Vasquez
Business Development
Claudia Vasquez is an Arizona Native, with most of her family still living in Arizona. She grew up in Flagstaff, where she was raised by a wonderful single mother with two younger brothers. Eventually, attended Northern Arizona University as a Broadcast Journalism Major, she was also a member of Delta Delta Delta Sorority! Transferred to Arizona State University and did her first internship with KSAZ-TV 10 Fox affiliate as a sports intern, in addition was a “Game Girl” for KGME Sports Radio 550 AM. While in school, she was a Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant, flying the friendly skies. Eventually went on the work for the Arizona Cardinals in Community Relations and has a passion for sports especially football…The next step was working for United Way, working with the NFL United Way partnership and also local athletes, professional sports teams in Phoenix, an addition to all television, radio, newspaper and magazine outlets on raising money for the local community. Claudia is excited to be a part of the Orca team and resides in Scottsdale, enjoying the beautiful weather, NFL Sundays (sports), bargain shopping, going to movies and trying new restaurants!
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Jennifer Harrington
Business Development
Jennifer brings more than a decade of experience producing television news to Orca Communications Unlimited LLC. After working several years for a lifestyle magazine television program, where Orca Communications clients were featured regularly, she decided it was time to join the Orca team.
She and her husband enjoy traveling to as many sporting events as possible. They have attended dozens of college bowl games, the Final Four and even the Super Bowl. Her love of sports comes from her childhood in Oklahoma, where football rules. But we aren’t talking about Sooners here. Jennifer is loyal to her alma mater the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
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Michelle Lawless
Business Development
Michelle Lawless is a news junkie who spent nearly 7 years as a producer at the number one independent news station in the country, KTVK-3TV. After growing up in Minnesota, Michelle decided to head for the sun, attending Arizona State University, where she majored in broadcast journalism with a minor in communications. After college, Michelle was lucky enough to be hired in the Phoenix market at 3TV. Thanks to her work in TV news, Michelle was able to see first hand how effective and valuable public relations really is. She is excited about now being able to share her knowledge with entrepreneurs and business owners through Orca Communications.
When Michelle’s not channel surfing for the latest news, she enjoys reading, doing pilates and playing with her babies, her dogs Joey and Oscar.
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