President

Nikki Tanis, president of Tanis Communications, has 20+ years experience creating and implementing a broad range of strategic communications and marketing programs. Most recently Nikki was corporate vice president, corporate marketing and communications at Spansion, Inc., a global, publicly traded Flash memory leader at the time, with $2.5 billion in revenue and over 9,000 employees. At Spansion Nikki led a team of 30 professionals worldwide, with responsibility for employee communications, product and corporate public relations, investor relations, marketing communications and events, web communications, corporate marketing and technical documentation.

Prior to Spansion, Nikki was president of Tanis Communications, Inc. During her first stint as agency president, Nikki led Tanis Communications to become a respected and fast growing Silicon Valley corporate marketing consultancy, serving a diverse set of high technology companies with a breadth of integrated communications and marketing services. Prior to Tanis Communications, Inc. Nikki was director of corporate communications at S3, Inc., a leader in graphics chips for the PC industry, and was advertising and PR manager for NEC Electronics, the U.S. semiconductor subsidiary of NEC Corporation. Nikki has also held communications positions at Precision Monolithics and Signetics.

Nikki holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in psychology from San Diego State University.

Managing Partner, Strategic Marketing and Social Media

Stephen Terlizzi is the managing partner and Head of the Social Media Practice for Tanis Communications. With more than 25 years experience in the high-tech industry, Steve has an extensive background in strategic marketing and messaging, sales enablement programs and social media businesses, including roles in both large enterprises and entrepreneurial startups.

As an entrepreneur, he founded an online social media destination for digital photographers that included extensive social media engagements through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Slideshare and other online vehicles.  He is an expert in creating successful B2C and B2B blogging programs to achieve customer’s awareness, sales and community objectives.

As the VP and GM of the Storage Solutions Group at Adaptec, he developed and executed a new strategic marketing plan and completely rebuilt the worldwide sales and marketing organization to reinvigorate a declining brand. Steve also built and managed global marketing for privately-held Atempo, a data protection software company.  Under his leadership, the company’s products won SNW’s “Best Practices in Storage Reliability and Data Recovery” award 2x in one year. He also repositioned the company’s image into high-growth markets of replication and archiving segments. Steve was also the VP of Marketing at two other Silicon Valley storage startups where he built comprehensive sales enablement programs to introduce their initial products into the marketplace.

At EMC Corporation, Steve managed the Symmetrix product business, accounting for a $5+ billion annual revenue stream. He also established EMC Japan K.K. in 1994 as key member of the initial 5-person management team.

Steve has an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology and a MBA with honors from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Senior Vice President, Strategic Communications

Robin Vaitonis has 15 years of marketing and communications experience in the wireless, video broadcast, embedded systems and data communications markets. Robin most recently served on the executive team as the director of corporate communications at Gennum, a publicly-traded Canadian semiconductor company.

Prior to that, Robin worked for Freescale, as the worldwide communications manager for its wireless group responsible for all PR and marketing communications activities. Robin has extensive experience developing corporate messages and product positioning strategies, brand management, M&A communications, CEO and executive positioning, employee communications and public relations and investor relations programs.

Robin holds a BS and MBA in marketing from Arizona State University.

Vice President, Public Relations

Judy Radlinsky has been in the stakeholder communications business for 25+ years, with expertise and a personal passion for public relations and executive communications. She has experience in-house and on the agency side, working with global leaders such as IBM, HP and Philips, as well as growing mid-size firms and startups.

Her clients and colleagues find her especially adept at taking complex, internally honed storylines and translating them into market positioning and content that external audiences will care about. She enjoys working with CEOs and other senior leaders to turn their ideas into great conversations, whether shared with a reporter, posted on a blog, e-mailed to a customer or delivered in a speech.

Judy was previously a vice president at high-tech PR consultancy The Hoffman Agency in San Jose, where she focused on clients in the software, storage, Internet and chip sectors. Earlier in her career, she served as head of global PR and executive communications for HP and held numerous leadership roles at IBM in the wireless computing, e-business, software, server and federal business units.

Judy earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

PR Account Director

Sacha Arts brings 17+ years of PR experience with high-technology companies ranging from start-ups such as AristaSoft, Power X and TeraChip, to Fortune 100 companies, including Adobe Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems.

Sacha is quite diverse and has excellent PR experience with semiconductors, computer peripherals, wireless connectivity, mobility, VoIP, messaging, networking, storage, security and consumer technologies. Accomplishments include the successful launches of Novell’s Network Security and HP’s Small Business Solutions initiatives, Adobe’s PrintGear product introduction and the AristaSoft, Power X and Norwood company launches.

Sacha is fluent in Dutch, German and French. She holds an International Business Degree from Intercollege in The Netherlands and a B.A. in Public Relations with a Minor in Japanese from San Jose State University.

Public Relations and Writing

Kelly Karr has nearly 20 years experience managing high-tech public relations programs for both PR agencies and in-house corporate communications departments. She has planned and executed highly-successful PR programs in the US, Europe and Asia that have garnered significant technology and business press coverage and helped generate substantial customer awareness.

For the past 8 years, Kelly has provided PR consulting services to a variety of Bay Area technology companies such as BroadLight, Oclaro, Netlogic Microsystems, Terabitz, Spansion and Trident Microsystems. Before that, Kelly was Director of Public Relations and Marketing Communications for Virata Corporation, a high-growth DSL semiconductor company, and Director of PR at S3 Corporation, a leader in graphics multimedia semiconductors and software.

Earlier in her career, Kelly spent many years working at two well-known public relations agencies: The Weber Group and Cunningham Communication. While at Cunningham Communication, Kelly was the co-manager of the highly-visible Motorola PowerPC account, which won numerous awards for outstanding PR and marketing.

Marketing Communications & Branding

Paul Gaither has nearly 30 years of marketing and communications experience, almost half of that in high tech. Paul has served as senior communications manager for Freescale Semiconductor’s wireless and mobile systems group and worked for Texas Instruments where he held roles as worldwide communications manager for the wireless solutions division and led communications for the company’s businesses in video and imaging, streaming media, consumer audio, optical networking and connectivity.

Prior to that, Paul headed up U.S. business development and key account management for Satama Interactive, a global Web development agency, working with accounts such as Nokia, Verizon, Nortel Networks and Canon and was a senior communications manager for the wireless division of Nortel Networks with global responsibility for strategic brand management, advertising and Web development programs.

Paul holds a BS and an MA in communications from Missouri State University.

Public Relations and Media Relations

Erika Powelson has 16 years experience managing public relations programs for high-technology, healthcare and non-profit corporations. Erika has provided proactive media relations services for Tanis clients such as Tensilica, HyperTransport Consortium, Candera and Z-force. As a PR strategy and implementation expert, Erika is also a primary client account manager for Tanis Communications and has strong media relationships in the semiconductor and storage sectors.

Since branching out as an independent consultant in 2000, Erika has worked with a variety of technology clients including Tradec (acquired by Agilent), Aplia and The Phelon Group. As a team member with other PR agencies, her clients have included Actel, Gennum and the Linley Group. Prior to this, Erika was a partner at McLean Public Relations with clients including Vestel, SoftwareMarkets and seeUthere.com.

Previously, for Quantum Corporation, Erika managed global communications between their North American headquarters and worldwide regions for all product launches, press releases and corporate messaging.

Erika holds a master’s degree in journalism and mass communications from San Jose State University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. She is a past president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and has published a book entitled, “Becoming a Communications Consultant in the Silicon Valley.”

Web Design and Graphics

Ben Mitrovich has over 9 years of experience in user interface (UI) development. He also is an expert in building and managing the complete user experience (UX), creating sophisticated Internet experiences.

Prior to working with Tanis, he has created solutions for companies such as Regent Broadcasting, Thoratec, One Touch (Diabetes meter), Plantronics, Scholastic, Zoomsystems and others. As the UI/UX Director position for Plantronics multi-user blog,  While keeping the UI within the branding guidelines, he was able to introduce new aesthetic ideas which contributed to an overall improved design.  He also was the UI/UX Director for the newly developed Zoomsystem website. ZoomSystems is the technology and services leader in the automated retail channel.  Their top brand and retail partners include Best Buy, Apple, Macy’s, Proactiv, Media-Markt, Verizon and Reebok.

Ben has is BA in Communications Design at CSU Chico.

Web Design and Graphics

Naithan Gallego has extensive experience and knowledge in web development and user interface programming. Before coming to Tanis, Naithan worked in research and development for private investment management companies, where he focused on developing user interfaces for historical data entry, graph analysis and websites. Naithan has also done web development for companies such as Plantronics, Scholastic and Zoomsystems.

Naithan has advanced knowledge of the web’s most popular markup and programming languages and is quite experienced with web frameworks and content management systems including WordPress, Django and Zend.

Naithan lives by the motto ”code is poetry” in hopes to make the web a better place through code for the best user experience possible.

PR Account Coordinator and Writer

Cindy McDowell has nearly 20 years high-technology public relations and communications experience. Before joining Tanis she was a consulting project manager and writer/editor for NAVAJO Company, a Silicon Valley-based marketing communications agency, where she worked for such clients as IBM and Symantec. Prior to that, she worked for 15 years as a public relations and communications consultant, and either independently or through agencies worked with clients such as Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Mercury Interactive, Adobe, Rational Software, BMC Software and leading companies in the FPGA and GPS space. She managed a variety of programs over the years, including speaking and awards programs, media outreach, messaging strategy, social media strategy and product launches.

Prior to her consulting work, she spent seven years at Borland International where started a successful customer reference program and was responsible for every piece of written material that left the corporate communications department, including press releases and annual reports. Cindy started her communications career on the agency side with San Jose’s Franson & Associates, working on such accounts as Hewlett-Packard and Altera.

She holds a B.S. in Journalism from San Jose State University.

Technical Writer

Nicholas Cravotta has been technical editor for EDN, Embedded Systems Programming and Communications Systems Design, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Multimedia Systems Design. He knows what makes a story newsworthy, what editors want and what it takes to get into print.

With 17 years of experience as a practicing engineer, he understands first-hand the issues behind designing complex systems. He has designed hard real-time embedded systems, written application software for PCs and workstations, built an operating system from the ground up, developed software and hardware development and test tools, ported software across platforms and even outsourced products in China.

As a professional writer for more than two decades, he has published over 300 articles in technical publications, and his methods avoid extensive and time-consuming editing and revision. He has also taught technical writing at UC Berkeley.

Marketing Communications Program Management

Jenner Crema has been working as a marketing communications professional for over 15 years and brings Tanis Communications exceptional program management skills. Most recently, Jenner was marketing communications manager at Spansion, where she was responsible for corporate marketing communications programs in addition to supporting the company’s wireless division.

Jenner has also held marketing communications management positions at companies such as Lam Research, Tripwire and Vantis. With both start-up as well as large company experience, Jenner has managed the spectrum of marketing and employee communications programs including advertising, direct mail, collateral, product launches, web and online campaigns.

Jenner has a B.A. in Communications with a Business Emphasis from UCLA.

Media & Analyst Relations/Strategy/Planning/Writing

Nicole focuses on three areas for her clients: consumer/business/trade broadcast/print/blog press outreach, analyst relations and speaking programs, where she has nurtured key relationships and expertise. With more than 15 years experience with key press and analysts, she understands the best strategies and particular procedures for working with each relevant influencer. As a former newspaper reporter, she also looks beyond traditional analysts to identify other key opinion leaders, a practice that can build credibility over night.

Thoughtful yet aggressive in her press efforts, Nicole drives company awareness, secures coverage, arranges extensive press tour line-ups and can strategize unique ways to get meaningful exposure, such as identifying and pitching industry trends, working with key customers to secure case studies, and uncovering interesting company and management stories for profile stories and executive Q & A. Some of her current and past clients include Connectivity Semiconductor company CSR, GPS leader SiRF Technology, Fluid, Inc., earthmine, White Sky, Inc, Fantage, Inc., Abaq.us, Project Hired, S3, Mercury Interactive, Everyone.net and Sana Security.

Nicole holds a B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State University.

Graphic Art and Design

Sophia Antipas has over 15 years experience in graphic art and design, supporting businesses through out the US and the UK. Primarily serving businesses in the high-tech sector she has traveled to Shanghai, Washington D.C. and parts west supporting live events. She has built a niche strength in presentation design, fostering many a successful marriage between Photoshop and PowerPoint for clients including Intel, Cisco, Spansion, UCSF, Openwave and numerous start ups.

Originally from the UK, Sophia first worked in corporate video as an assistant producer. Clients included Siemens, British Rail, British Telecom and Mirror Group Newspapers.

Sophia has an MS from the School of Ocean Sciences and a BS from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. As a fine art photographer of 10 years+, Sophia has a keen eye for visual balance and is a graphic designer who continues an active program of self-education.