Valerie Beaudett, Principal

Valerie Beaudett is the principal of Umbrella PR and handles the ongoing account strategy and daily management of client programs. Valerie started Umbrella PR over 5 years ago and has worked with a variety of technology and clean technology clients including PeopleSoft, McAfee, IronPort Systems, Activant, OuterBay Technologies, Synopsys, GuardianEdge, ActivIdentity, Network General, Mu Dynamics, Altor Networsk, Tripwire, Noetix, Host Analytics, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Informatica and several smaller start up organizations. Prior to starting Umbrella PR, Valerie previously held in-house positions with Hyperion, Ingrian Networks, Netscape Communications and Symantec. With over 15-years of experience, Valerie has developed and executed complete communications programs consisting of messaging and positioning, relentless media relations, strategic customer reference programs, speaker's bureau, and product/corporate launches. Her successes include solid placements in key technology, vertical and business publications, published contributed articles in technology trade publications, high-level placements in top-tier business and clean tech conferences for executives and successful customer reference programs. Valerie holds a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University and has attended online PR courses through NYU.   

J.C. Miller, Vice President 

J.C. Miller, vice president at Umbrella PR brings more than 15-years of high-tech marketing experience in developing lasting strategic assets through creative market development. J.C.’s background is an unusual mix of creative, business, entrepreneurial and corporate giving him a deep understanding of how to connect strategic goals and operations to drive business success. Prior to his work with Umbrella PR, he served as Director of Marketing at ProactiveNet (later acquired by BMC) and StockMaster.com (later acquired by RedHerring).  J.C. has also held senior level positions at Knight Ridder and Thompson Learning. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in Business Communications and Comparative Economics.  

Jean Lombard, Vice President 

Jean is an accomplished and award-winning Bay Area PR professional with ten years of experience launching and promoting category-creating products and companies.  After nearly ten years in IR and PR agencies handling developing short and long-term PR programs for a wide variety of B to B and B to C technology, healthcare and life sciences companies, Jean established The Jean Effect, which she has operated for 7 years.
 
Jean is particularly energized by roles she has held with enterprise software companies, translating corporate vision and objectives into media outreach programs to drive product sales, create superior product positioning among influencers and gain mindshare in key verticals (financial services, transportation, healthcare).  
 
Jean has also held director-level PR positions as a contractor within several publicly-traded enterprise software companies (including Siebel, TIBCO and Movaris) where her corporate communications contributions led to on-target media coverage that resulted in faster sales cycles.
 
Jean is a nimble, savvy and enthusiastic communications strategist with a track record of securing on-target media coverage. Jean’s specific skills include PR plan development and integration into other segments of marketing (channel marketing, sales and product development and advertising) to meet benchmarks for message penetration, timing and budget.  Jean’s repertoire also includes prepping spokespeople for media tours, writing press releases and proactive pitches for print, broadcast and social/online media, developing CEO speaking programs and executive support at events.