Stephen L. Email & Phone Number

San Francisco, Ca, Us

Santa Clara, Ca, Us

Communications consulting, media relations, and writing services for AI-related research teams, academics, and startups. References available upon request.

New York, Ny, Us

As the social media and public relations lead for Chronosphere, I work with the marketing, People, and leadership teams to create, plan, and execute comms initiatives that will position us as the top challenger in a crowded observability industry. Responsibilities include strategic communications, executive communications/social presence, and company-wide social advocacy programs. I oversee daily and special event social media programs, manage multiple contractors, and oversee strategic company-wide programs like our company’s social advocacy and listening programs.Results:Improved Chronosphere’s share of voice to #2 in among cloud native observability companies.Increased tier 1/tier 2 media coverage by 60% YoY.Increased the company’s avg. engagement rate on social media by 50%.Led major company announcements, including fundraising, partnerships with large public companies, Chronosphere’s first-ever acquisition, and crisis response.Oversaw the writing/ghostwriting, editing, and production of Cloud Native Observability (O’Reilly ebook/report) for our CTO Rob Skillington and CEO Martin Mao. Leader: Gartner Magic Quadrant.Key wins: TechCrunch, The Pragmatic Engineer, Fortune, LinkedIn Top Startups, and more.

South San Francisco, California, Us

I was the communications lead for engineering and infrastructure communications at Stripe. My responsibilities included media relations, social media, and speaking opportunities for Stripes across the Tech Org. I was also the interim lead for crypto communications at the company for six months and the functional lead for crisis/customer communications related to outages and security incidents (due to a teammate's departure). I partnered with marketing, product, and recruiting teams to maintain an exceptionally high bar for written communications, including blogs, speeches, newsroom posts, and social media. Results:Eng & Infra Comms:Led the speaking, media, and social media program for Stripe engineering.Tripled the number of speaking appearances for Stripe’s CTO, writing and producing multiple unique presentations (videos, slides, etc.). Resurrected the Stripe Engineering blog after it had been dormant for over a year. Sourced, edited, and published posts that earned plaudits both internally and from tech industry influencers (John Gruber, Paul Graham, etc.).Crypto comms: Oversaw the planning and execution of Stripe’s marquee crypto product launch of 2022 (at the time, Stripe’s most-viewed announcement on social media). Crisis response: Successfully managed dozens of sensitive issues and minimized negative press coverage, while working with multiple stakeholders across time zones. Helped shape Stripe communication policies for bug bounty disclosure, outages, and privacy risk escalation.

Sunnyvale, Ca, Us

I was the point person for stories about AI/ML and data science at LinkedIn. I helped develop the company’s narratives around AI, product design, and the experience of our end users. In this role, I helped set the strategic vision for how we talked about AI/ML as core to the future of our product roadmap. I also fielded press inquiries about complicated topics like algorithmic bias and was a ghostwriter for C-suite executives. I reviewed all company research papers, research partnerships, and presentations related to my area of expertise. For three years, I also oversaw the LinkedIn Engineering blog, Twitter, microsite content, and Engineering VP thought leadership initiatives. Won the In2 Sabre Award: Best Use of Blogs–LinkedIn Engineering Blog.Results:Increased LinkedIn Engineering’s media visibility: 2x the amount of tier 1 media coverage YoY (2015-16, ‘18-19. ‘19-20).Drove a +45% increase in Eng microsite traffic and a +225% increase in blog traffic. Reviewed dozens of technical papers and 100+ presentations on topics like applied AI, data science, and cybersecurity.Placed agenda-setting media stories on topics like responsible AI, open source software, and public-private research partnerships (Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, etc.).Was the primary comms and marketing contact for the launch and first two years of the Open19 data center standard, a multi-stakeholder initiative that grew to include companies like HPE, GE Digital, and Flex and a network of ODM, OEM, and SI partners. Managed multiple high-stakes issues around vulnerabilities, privacy, policy issues (U.S. and E.U.), and AI. Helped run the comms war room for the Microsoft acquisition.

San Jose, Ca, Us

Comms lead reporting directly to the CMO for most of my tenure. Responsible for corporate communications, technology storytelling, and analyst relations. I worked cross-functionally with security research, security operations, and marketing teams to develop unique research, promote executive thought leadership, and deliver compelling product narratives. I helped manage the company blog and was the daily comms contact at the company.

San Jose, Ca, Us

Clients included WhiteHat Security, Bugcrowd, NetIQ, Palo Alto Networks, Plantronics, NetApp, Yahoo!, Nokia Developer Relations and others.At Voce, I regularly acted as the day-to-day agency point of contact for my clients'​ internal communications professionals and client spokespeople/technical experts. I assisted with overall media strategy, planning and execution including product launches and thought leadership campaigns for savvy, fast-paced enterprise technology companies of all sizes. I oversaw daily social media operations and set tone for company voice for in specialized fields that required a good understanding of both the target audience and my clients' products. I successfully placed dozens of articles in major media outlets, including several business publications. I wrote and secured placement of bylines for senior executives, secured speaking opportunities at leading industry conferences. On many accounts, I served as the subject matter expert for the agency PR team.

San Jose, Ca, Us

New York, Ny, Us

New York, Ny, Us

New York, Ny, Us

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