VTM PR Management Team
VTM PR professionals are recognized for their outstanding achievements.
Rich Baek - President & Chief Consultant
Rich Baek founded VTM, Inc. in 1995 and currently serves as president and chief consultant. He also serves as the executive director for several technology industry initiatives and associations, most notably PCI-SIG, USB Implementers Forum, the Digital Living Network Alliance and the InfiniBand® Trade Association.
Rich has more than fifteen years of experience in international business development, entrepreneurship and technical marketing. His technical background and business acumen make him uniquely qualified for trade associations in the role of the neutral third-party officer of the corporation. In this role, he helps develop and communicate the industry vision for the organization, facilitates discussions and development of issues, provides organizational cohesiveness and serves as spokesperson and liaison to other organizations. His strong leadership and business acumen have played key roles in VTM's growth and unprecedented 100% client retention track record. In recognition of his efforts, Rich was named Oregon's 2006 Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration.
Rich earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of Washington as well as an M.S.E.E and an M.B.A. from the University of Portland.
Bill Warner - Vice President & Senior Consultant, Strategic Communications
Bill Warner directs VTM's strategic communications practice. He has nearly 30 years of experience in strategic communications and marketing. Before joining VTM, Bill was senior vice president with KVO Public Relations (a Fleishman-Hillard company) for five years, where he led the spokesperson training and messaging strategy practices. He has provided communications and crisis management counsel to a wide range of clients – from high-technology companies to nonprofit organizations.
Bill's recent client experience includes work in telecommunications and Internet technologies, electronic commerce, digital and high-definition TV, consulting and financial services, business re-engineering, enterprise computing and nonprofit board development. He has been writing professionally since 1969 on subjects ranging from information technology and environmental concerns to business leadership and education. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
Lisa Sherwin - Director, Public Relations Group
Lisa Sherwin oversees direction for the public relations group at VTM. Since 2004, VTM has annually been named to the Portland Business Journal’s list of “Top 25 PR and Marketing Agencies.” Lisa has worked with trade associations and special interest groups such as the USB Implementers Forum, PCI-SIG, DLNA, WiMedia Alliance, Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) and the Service Availability Forum.
Prior to joining VTM, Lisa provided strategic counsel and public relations services to clients of KVO Public Relations (a Fleishman-Hillard company). Most recently, she worked closely with the Java software team at Sun Microsystems and the e-commerce applications group at iPlanet, A Sun-Netscape Alliance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in mass communication from Linfield College and sits on the board of directors for the PRSA Portland Metro Chapter.
Ray Berardinelli – Account Director, Public Relations Group
Ray provides strategic leadership for all PR accounts at VTM. His career experience includes developing, managing and executing a variety of marketing communications activities for well-known technology firms including Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Intel and Novell. Ray has been an executive inside and a consultant to Fortune 500 corporations, has founded and led his own companies, and has contributed to the marketing efforts of regional non-profit organizations. Over the course of his career, Ray has counseled CEOs, vice presidents, group directors, general managers and product managers on marketing strategy and product positioning in support of a variety of products and services.
He has been a member of the American Marketing Association, the Public Relations Society of America Counselors Academy and is a former Executive Committee Member of PRSA’s National Technology Section. Ray earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Ohio State University with a concentration in science writing.
*Driving client success for more than 10 years*