A Free Agent For Third Year In Row, Silicon Valley Communications Leader Sees Employment Parallels Between Professional Sports and Public Relations Business

The worlds of professional sports and Silicon Valley public relations seem to be operating in parallel where the employment scene is concerned. Thats the view of Gary Katz, immediate past president of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and founder of the 1000-person CommPRos Network on Ryze.com, who is about to find himself on the free agent market for the third year in a row. Katz, whose nine-month stint with enterprise IP telephony player ShoreTel ended Friday, is actively seeking a leadership role in corporate marketing, corporate communications, public relations or related areas.

(PRWEB) November 9, 2004 -- The worlds of professional sports and Silicon Valley public relations seem to be operating in parallel where the employment scene is concerned. Thats the view of Gary Katz, immediate past president of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and founder of the 1000-person CommPRos Network on Ryze.com, who is about to find himself on the free agent market for the third year in a row. Katz, whose nine-month stint with enterprise IP telephony player ShoreTel ended Friday, is actively seeking a leadership role in corporate marketing, corporate communications, public relations or related areas.

It doesnt take much these days to go from being one of the key players on the team to back on the market looking for a new squad," said Katz, who became overqualified for his director of communications role at ShoreTel when it was scaled down to a individual contributor position. Since moving to the corporate side in 1999, my desire was to build upon the programs and results I created over the long-term, but changing organizational circumstances havent allow me to fulfill that vision."

At ShoreTel - a small but fast-growing company challenging giants like Cisco and Avaya in the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) space - Katz navigated through major changes in the organization, including the departure of the VP of Marketing who hired him and the hiring of a new CEO to replace a much-respected leader. Both of these changes severely impacted how the communications role was valued at the top of the organization and the associated budget investment in the function. Its a classic problem for marketing and communications professionals," said Katz. If your CEO gets the value of communications at a deep level, you can deliver extraordinary results for your organization over time. If the CEO views communications as an expendable function, great work can come to a screeching halt."

Katz can look back with pride at the results his 1-1/2 person Communications department was able to deliver during his relatively short time at ShoreTel. His public relations, marketing communications and lead generation programs generated more than 10,000 leads and widespread publicity exposure, resulting in more than 100 percent revenue growth over two quarters. Katz played an integral role in the companys highly successful corporate re-brand from Shoreline Communications to ShoreTel and spearheaded the launch of the ShoreTel5 platform, which included the unveiling of the companys first internally-developed IP phones. He also led an extremely ambitious content development program in support of the companys 140+-partner channel that included reengineering the public website and producing 9 webinars, 12 case studies, 3 white papers, 4 published articles, 9 datasheets, a corporate capabilities brochure, an 80+-page primer on IP telephony and a monthly newsletter. After the VP of Marketing left the company in June, Katz also managed ShoreTels 2-1/2 person lead qualification group and outsource suppliers until a director of Lead Generation was hired in September.

Before ShoreTel, Katz was director of corporate marketing for Tokyo-based Aplix Corporation, an enterprise software company, for 1-1/2 years before his position was eliminated at the end of 2003. Aplixs sales grew 25 percent while I was with the company, enabling it to complete a successful IPO on the Mothers Tokyo Stock Exchange last December, said Katz. The CEO told me I did a very good job but they were shutting down the entire international marketing operation - which was basically my position -- because the financial community in Japan had a negative view of international marketing and public relations spending."

Prior to joining Aplix, Katz endured a lay-off in February 2002 from Insignia Solutions, a Fremont, Calif. -- based software company traded on the NASDAQ under the stock ticker, INSG. During his 2-1/2 years at Insignia, Katz led global corporate communications, public relations and investor relations initiatives. I saw the company almost double its sales one year, then trim its marketing staff from 12 to two people the next. I was the second-to-last person in the group to go. A year later, the last person, my former boss, was given his walking papers, which enabled me to hire him as a contractor to manage a major Aplix trade show.

Before Insignia, Katz founded a public relations firm, Public Relations Solutions, Inc., and a marketing/public relations consultancy, Katz Business Communications. He also held account leadership roles with many technology public relations firms and marketing communications agencies as both an employee and preferred subcontractor. His 20-year plus career encompasses work with a diverse mix of more than 125 companies in enterprise software, networking, storage and semiconductors including AG Associates, E-Tech Research, Finisar, Interlink Computer Sciences, LaPine Technology, Luminate Software, Micrel Semiconductor, Racal-Vadic, RadioMail, RAM Mobile Data, Siemens Business Communications and Terastor. He has also lent his communications expertise to industry associations such as the Embedded Linux Consortium, Java Community Process, Systems Performance Evaluation Cooperative (SPEC), Technology Executive Roundtable and the X.400 API Association.

My career is definitely a bit off the beaten path compared to the typical marketing and public relations professional," commented Katz, who holds a Masters degree in Human Resource Management and Organization Development. Ive been self-employed half the time. I evolved into the chief company spokesperson in my last three positions. Ive co-presented with a CEO (Insignia) during financial analyst tours that ultimately netted investments exceeding $20 million. Ive founded three different professional networking groups. Ive led an organizational diagnosis team for a customer support group at Cadence and acted as a technical facilitator for Sun University."

Despite his misfortune since 2002, Katz is ready to jump back into the corporate scene when the right situation presents itself. I love leading a team to deliver multi-faceted communications programs that build market leadership and create sales opportunities," he said. My mix of skills in strategic planning, messaging, facilitation, entrepreneurship and leadership lend themselves very well to the corporate world. My last five years with corporations clearly showed me that I can not only thrive, but be extremely fulfilled in such a role -- provided the long-term organization commitment is there."

Maybe next time around, Ill take the professional athlete approach and negotiate a multi-year deal," Katz quipped.

More on Katz
Katz earned his Masters degree from the University of San Francisco and also holds a Bachelors degree in Public Relations from San Jose State University. He lives in Santa Clara, Calif. with his wife of 20 years, Melissa, and ten-year old daughter, Miranda.

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