Laura Borgstede has more than 22 years executive management, branding and marketing communications experience working with business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies of all sizes. In her career, Laura has been responsible for the awareness-building of more than
30 companies’ liquidity events – whether IPO or acquisition. She has successfully directed company and product launches for industry leaders in the communications field, beginning with the first digital network launch (Sprint Spectrum), the first smartphone (Nokia), the first “world phone” (Bosch Telecom) as well as the first wireless data applications. She has developed an expertise and passion in the mobile, wireless and telecommunications markets, which allows her to have extremely close relationships with the editors and analysts in senior positions in these industries.
Laura started Calysto Communications as the first global public relations agency focused on wireless and telecom in February 1999. This has expanded to full marketing communications in mobile, wireless, telecom and cable. As CEO of Calysto, Laura guides the firm’s operations, business development, strategic client efforts and Calysto’s long-term vision. She leads a team of more than 50 VP-level PR professionals and has supervised more than 500 clients.
Since 1999, she has counseled a wide range of companies – from start-ups to the Fortune 100 – in multiple telecommunications segments. Some of these include Broadwing Communications, Level 3 Communications, TELLABS, Telica (sold to Alcatel-Lucent), VocalData (sold to Tekelec), SPIRENT, Metasolv (sold to Oracle), Cbeyond (sold to Birch), ADTRAN, Qpass (sold to Amdocs), Eastern Research (sold to Sycamore Networks), Widevine (sold to Google), TAT (sold to RIM), BroadSoft (NASDAQ: BSFT), Bridgewater Systems (a division of Amdocs), Radisys (NASDAQ: RSYS), and many more. In 2007, Laura expanded Calysto’s operations globally and now offers clients a local presence in more than 80 countries. In the last five years, Calysto has consistently ranked among the top PR firms in the technology industry, according to an independent survey of technology journalists conducted by PRSourceCode. In 2009, Laura was ranked one of the best PR professionals in the US, by PRSourceCode’s independent survey of technology reporters and analysts.
Prior to Calysto, Laura served as a Vice President at Socket Public Relations (now Hill & Knowlton), including establishing a regional office in Research Triangle Park, N.C. For four years, she led global accounts such as ABB (NYSE: ABB), Bosch Telecommunications, IBM Wireless, Ericsson and ADTRAN as well as entrepreneurial companies such as Ganymede Software (purchased by NetIQ), RangeStar Wireless, Dun & Bradstreet Software (now GEAC Software), Wireless Telecom Inc. (WTI) and many others.
Before joining Hill & Knowlton, Laura was with Crescent Communications in Atlanta, where she managed integrated marketing communications programs for companies such as Nokia, Scientific-Atlanta, IBM, BARCO and many others.
Laura also has a strong passion to provide strategic counsel and assistance for the industry’s tradeshows and conferences. She has served on the advisory boards for many of them, including SUPERCOMM, CTIA, VON, Billing World, Internet Telephony Expo, PulverMedia, IEC and many more. Her passion is to help these events advance and grow, leading the industries they serve. She founded a conference/ events trade newsletter called PR Vibes™ (www.prvibes.com) in 2000 to help busy executives evaluate major industry trade shows in terms of their marketing dollar value. She serves as the editor-in-chief of this unique trade publication.
In addition to her passion for the industry’s events, Laura seeks to help her industry’s key trade publications and journalists succeed – in any climate. She has served on the advisory boards for many new and transitioning trade publications and has helped more than 15 analyst firms/publications hire the industry’s elite by making discrete introductions. (Her second job could be as an industry recruiter.) She also regularly interviews Editors-in-Chief of leading publications and the presidents and CEOs of the industry’s market research and analyst firms for the PR Vibes™ newsletter. The newsletter also regularly covers media, analyst and blogger moves around the industry.
A 2008 Stevie Awards for Women in Business finalist, Laura is an “e-lumni” of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and a member of WorldWIT (Women. Insights. Technology), the Public Relations Society of America, Atlanta Telecom Professionals, Wireless Technology Forum, Women in Wireless and the Radio Club of America. She served on the Board of Directors for Venture ’98, the venture funding event coordinated by Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) in RTP, N.C. Laura holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from Florida State University.
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Role: Strategy and Team direction