Management Team
SHIFT Communications was founded in April 2003, by Jim Joyal and Todd Defren – two colleagues who have worked closely together in PR for the past decade. Our offices around the country include more than 90 top-quality account service professionals, in addition to the members of our internal support teams. The majority of the account service personnel have experience inside both corporate and agency environments, enabling them to see situations from the client’s view as well as the agency’s. More specifically, our staff members have held positions in a comprehensive range of positions including:
- Marketing/public relations managers inside technology companies
- Marketing specialists within financial firms
- Newspaper reporters
- Broadcast journalists
- Freelance writers
- Account specialists, managers, supervisors and vice presidents at other public relations agencies
As a result of the staff's combined expertise, each SHIFT client receives a global perspective that leads to specific solutions for communications, marketing and product positioning objectives.
Jim Joyal, Principal
A 25-year veteran of agency life, Jim Joyal co-leads the company and oversees SHIFT’s business development efforts and growth plans.
Prior to SHIFT, Jim held several senior level positions at Sterling Hager, Inc. His last position at Sterling Hager was president, but he also managed the Agency’s medical technology group.
Earlier in his career, Jim served as public relations associate at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). He also served as the director of practice development for Occupational Therapy Associates in San Diego, and as a commissioned officer in both The United States Navy and Navy Reserve.
Jim holds a bachelor's degree in Occupational Therapy and a master's degree in Public Relations, both from Boston University.
Todd Defren, Principal
Leads client services and business development efforts for the $12M firm.
In addition to speaking at venues such as The Conference Board, the NewComm Forum, etc., Defren consults with clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Quiznos and Sony Online Entertainment regarding social media strategies.
Defren is also known for his work on the PR-Squared blog. As a pet project started in early 2004, PR-Squared was one of the first PR blogs, and has blossomed into a major industry voice. The blog now ranks among the Technorati “Top 10K,” is one of the featured blogs on Social Media at Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop service, and is listed prominently in AdAge’s Power150.
Prior to SHIFT, Defren was at Sterling Hager, joining in 1994 as an account manager and reaching the level of managing director of the San Francisco office in August 2000. His earlier experience included managing the strategic and tactical corporate communications at ENTEX Information Services, a $2 billion New York-based systems integrator, now part of Siemens AG.
Defren has served as a visiting professor at Emerson College in Boston, lecturing on marketing and public relations on the Internet. In 2006, Defren was named a Research Fellow and member of the Advisory Board of the Society for New Communications Research.
Education: bachelor's degree in literature from Bard College (Annandale, NY).
Amy Lyons, President
As President of SHIFT Communications, Amy Lyons provides the leadership and counsel to position SHIFT at the forefront of the PR industry. Primarily responsible for the overall strategic direction of the Agency, Lyons is tasked with ensuring that SHIFT continues to deliver the creativity, innovation and service offerings that its clients have come to expect. Working hand in hand with SHIFT's Vice Presidents in Boston, San Francisco and New York, Lyons pulls from a 15-year communications career and a keen understanding of the operational discipline and talent focus needed to grow a successful Agency and, specifically, advance SHIFT's mission and business objectives.
Prior to assuming the role of President, Lyons was a Vice President of Account Service at SHIFT, where she led an impressive roster of accounts ranging in size from start-ups to a $1 billion public company. In addition to directing strategy and messaging development, Lyons specialized in executing rapid response campaigns to industry trends and breaking news for her clients in the IT security and enterprise software markets.
Education: Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and sociology from Hollins College, Roanoke, Virginia; Masters in Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
Aaron Heinrich, Managing Director, San Francisco
As Managing Director of the San Francisco office, Aaron Heinrich brings over 20 years of experience developing and managing strategic external and internal programs for companies across a broad array of industries including consumer electronics, online retail, digital entertainment, software, wireless telecom, and social media. This includes developing executive communication platforms, creating and driving corporate identity and branding programs, and managing national and international product launches for companies like Amazon, T-Mobile, Canon, and Microsoft.
Prior to joining Shift, Heinrich was a consultant with ROI Communication, assessing and developing internal communication programs for companies like HP, Cisco, and Pfizer. Additionally, Heinrich has managed global PR teams at Waggener Edstrom and Ketchum, and worked with teams at both agencies to integrate social media into traditional PR campaigns.
Education: Masters of Fine Arts in screenwriting from University of Southern California; Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Arizona State University.
Molly Mandell, Managing Director, NYC
As Managing Director of the NYC office, Molly Mandell oversees the New York team's entire client base, bringing over thirteen years of PR experience to the Agency. Molly's focus is on social media and digital marketing, and she is constantly working with her clients to ensure that they are at the forefront of digital marketing. Molly has a rich history in consumer brands as well as the entertainment space, beginning her career in Los Angeles at Paramount Pictures, and then returning to her hometown of New York City to work in marketing at Miramax Films for over five years.
Prior to her work at SHIFT, Molly grew and developed the Social Media/PR department at LBi as a Client Partner / Head of Social Media. She has developed groundbreaking campaigns for GE, Clinique, Calvin Klein, and Hendrick's Gin.
Education: Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Studies from McGill University in Montreal.
Cathy Summers, Vice President of Account Services
Primarily responsible for managing an aggressive, results-driven account team and providing strategic counsel to her clients, Summers has 15 years of technology PR experience with specific expertise in the IT security, storage, networking, mobile/wireless and enterprise software markets. The breadth of her client roster ranges from early-stage to publicly traded companies. Summers joined SHIFT in 2003 as an Account Manager and worked her way up to Vice President (2008).
Previously, Summers worked at The Ardell Group and Jennings & Associates Communications. Both are high-tech agencies in the San Diego metropolitan area.
Education: Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from the University of San Diego.
Derek Lyons, Vice President of Account Services
Serves as a primary client contact and strategic counsel lead, while driving tactical execution with an account team that services a diverse
Prior to SHIFT, Derek was at Sterling Hager, Inc., starting in May 2000 as an account executive and rising through the ranks to the level of account manager. There he led a variety of accounts in the electronic commerce, security and storage markets.
Prior to Sterling Hager, Derek managed client relations and project management for a number of Boston-based video production companies, working with clients like Discovery Channel, ABC News, VH1 and NBA Entertainment.
Education: Bachelor of Science degree in communications concentrating in advertising and public relations from Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York; Masters in Business Administration concentrating on marketing at Bentley College, Waltham, MA.
Catherine Allen, Vice President of Account Services
As a vice president at SHIFT Communications, Catherine Allen pulls from 10+ years of communications experience providing trusted strategic PR and social media counsel to a variety of emerging and established brands. Clients turn to Catherine to find quick thinking, dedicated support and a true communications partnership. She takes existing PR programs and brings them to the next level with fierce messaging, creative pitch angles and aggressive tactics. On the flipside, she turns start-ups into overnight PR and social media sensations and these programs have won her team recognition from the Society for New Communications Research and the New England Publicity Club’s Bell Ringer Awards program.
Catherine has developed PR programs for a wide variety of B2B technologies, including speech, advertising/marketing, crowdsourcing, knowledge management, security, CAD/PLM/engineering, mobile, healthcare offerings for physicians and payers, network management, collaboration, CDNs/streaming video, application acceleration, HR/e-learning, SEO and SOA. She has also helped companies in the word-of-mouth marketing, pharmaceutical marketing and management consulting differentiate themselves via media and social media. A sampling of her consumer work includes mobile applications and networks, PC/mobile casual games and consumer health information. Under Catherine’s guidance, these B2B and consumer clients have appeared in business press, blogs, local and national newspapers, podcasts, TV & radio outlets, online news outlets and trade publications.
Prior to joining SHIFT in 2003, Allen was a senior account executive with Sterling Hager, Inc., one of the country’s leading independent public relations agencies, a firm she joined in 1999. Prior to Sterling Hager, Allen worked as a headhunter for the placement firm Aerotek. She specialized in recruiting and placing skilled technical professionals with some of the country's leading engineering companies.
Education: Bachelor of Science degree in corporate communication from Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York.
Erin Santy, Vice President
Erin Santy is a vice president in SHIFT's Consumer Lifestyle Practice, providing strategic counsel and guidance to such clients as Logitech, Quiznos and Twonky. She leads the team in everything from big-picture thinking and implementation of PR activities to product launches and social media campaigns. Erin has worked with a wide variety of companies at all stages of growth, from launching startups such as CardStar, Powerset and Watercooler to working with large players including Bing, Rhapsody and TV Guide. Erin has managed client strategy and messaging for clients such as Oakley, UGOBE and Wells Fargo.
Before joining SHIFT, Erin was a Senior Account Executive at Edelman/A&R Partners, a high-tech PR firm in Silicon Valley. She led corporate, channel and customer PR for Citrix Systems as the company grew to more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Additionally, Erin leveraged several years of background in the telecommunications and television space to gain visibility for TV Guide and its ground-breaking MyTVGuide initiative. She shaped messaging to package the concept for mainstream media and built top-tier relationships for TV Guide, leading up to its acquisition by Macrovision.
In her public relations career she has worked with a wide variety of enterprise, consumer tech and consumer lifestyle companies, including AirMagnet, Avocent, Bottlenotes, CardStar, Check Point Software, MarkMonitor, Netopia, the Rubicon Project, SkyStream, Watercooler, Wordlock and Worio. She holds bachelor's degrees in mass communications and political science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Joel Richman, Vice President
An experienced PR and digital marketing professional who has built cutting edge visibility campaigns across a diverse spectrum of companies, from startups to publicly traded enterprises. He focuses on the tight integration of traditional media outreach with new and social media strategies and tactics. Joel's technology experience spans B-2-B clients in hardware, Open Source, enterprise software and cloud/SaaS, as well as consumer-oriented clients in the social web and emerging media sectors.
Prior to joining SHIFT, Joel was a vice president at fama PR and was instrumental in creating PAN Communications' social media practice, where he was that agency's first Director of Social Media. In addition to collaborating with clients on their social media presence, Joel's responsibilities include devising integrated campaign strategies and ensuring their execution through to successful results.
Education: Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism concentrating in Public Relations from Northeastern University
Paula Finestone, Vice President of Operations
A 10 year veteran of SHIFT – and an extreme distance runner – Finestone manages a battery of key financial and operational duties that keep the company running efficiently and smoothly. She oversees the financial and fiscal management of company operations, and provides leadership and coordination in the administration, business planning, accounting and budgeting efforts. Finestone also governs the crucial human resources function: payroll, recruiting, and benefits administration. She is also tasked with adherence to key insurance and legal requirements across offices in Boston, New York and San Francisco.
Finestone graduated from Fitchburg State with high honors in Business Management with a minor in Marketing.
