Ben Rand Email & Phone Number

Rochester, Ny, Us

Helping Quad redefine itself as marketing experience (Mx) company by developing sophisticated case studies, feature stories, executive interviews, news briefings and other content that provides insights into the increasing complexity of marketing. My team and I focus on explaining problems facing vertical industries and offering solutions in creative formats, using clear, accurate and understandable language.

Rochester, New York Area

Overseeing external communications programs and activities, including media relations, public relations and community relations, for nationally recognized law firm. Developing and executing business development strategies and plans for attorney teams in nine New York communities. Establishing and sustaining relationships with journalists in each local area where Harris Beach maintains an office. Pitching and placing attorneys into stories in recognition of their thought leadership in various areas of law. Working with attorneys to identify community relations and local sponsorship activities to help raise awareness of firm expertise and values. Overseeing budgets, assisting in making investment decisions and executing in connection with those community relations activities. Overseeing social media strategy and helping manage firm social media communities on LinkedIn and Twitter. Managing social media team and providing training guidance for attorneys. Providing communication counsel to firm clients.

Ithaca, New York Area

Served as spokesman and media relations liaison for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell’s second largest school. Established and maintained relationships with local, state and national agriculture and science writers for stories on breakthrough Cornell research. Developed story ideas and wrote for the Cornell Chronicle, Cornell’s institutional platform for external storytelling. Collaborated on and contributed content to college social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Wrote and placed op-eds presenting Cornell’s view on matters in the agriculture marketplace. Streamlined processes for internal management of media clips and media relationships. Served as principal college liaison with central media relations team.

Rochester, New York Area

Served as chief storyteller for newly established brand in business process services and outsourcing marketplace. Conceived of ideas, investigated their feasibility and developed them into stories for use in digital marketing and social media. Gathered resources; oversaw work of agency and internal teams in creating and publishing content. Completed a portfolio of several hundred digital assets -- eBooks, slideshares, blog posts, videos, infographics and other items on-time, on-budget and on-scope. Content fed traffic to Conduent.com website and generated more than a million page views in under six months. Managed corporate blog network. Administered budgets for content. Collaborated with demand generation and email marketing teams; together our work brought in an average of 30-40 qualified marketing leads per month. Managed social media strategy and execution , including oversight of communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Drove followership from almost zero to more than 60,000 in under six months.

Rochester, New York Area

Led strategic planning, development and execution of content marketing strategy for Xerox.com. Oversaw production of eBooks, slideshares, long-scrolling editorial pages, infographics, videos and other long-form content. Initial content generated 200,000 page views in six months. Managed blog network and producing blog posts and articles; my team successfully doubled page views and subscribers in 2015. Also served as managing editor of the former RealBusiness.com, a digital magazine for the healthcare, transportation and other vertical markets. In both my current and previous roles, I have overseen the work of external content marketing and PR agencies, serving as liaison between subject matter experts and agency writers and planners.

Rochester, New York

Supervised team of 10 professionals in developing marketing communications strategies, tactics and outputs for Harris RF Communications, a division of Harris Corporation. Harris RF specializes in tactical and public safety communications equipment and networking expertise. Responsible for successful execution of trade shows and various projects in public relations, advertising and media relations, graphic design, employee communications and other areas. Managed budgets in close coordination with financial planning and corporate headquarters, including reduction projects. Served as principal liaison for presenting communications strategies to corporate headquarters Served as PR lead on key business development campaign that opened up a $1 billion sales opportunity to competition.

Rochester, New York Area

Oversaw public relations strategy and tactics for Harris RF Communications, global leaders in highly secure tactical and public safety communications equipment and networking expertise. I was responsible for utilizing PR and media relations to establish and amplify division and corporate messages to key audiences, including journalists, customers, investors and employees. Our efforts covered the full multimedia spectrum -- press releases, op-eds, speeches, website copy, magazine articles, video, images and social media. I was RF Communications' primary point of contact for the press, fielding and executing on interview requests from both domestic and international trade reporters and nurturing long-term customer-style relationships.In this role I spearheaded the division's entry into and understanding of social media and managed our Facebook and Twitter channels both by developing policy manuals and editorial calendars as well as posting key messages. Other duties included overseeing the production of Frequency, a 40+-page bi-annual customer magazine. The local chapter of PRSA twice recognized Frequency with Silver Anvils for best customer magazine. My role also required me to manage significant agency relationships and budgets with firms located in both Rochester and Washington, D.C. In this capacity, I worked directly with agency personnel on a range of important campaigns, including an ongoing project designed to leverage Harris into an emerging new market for tactical radio modernization.

Wrote business related articles about Eastman Kodak and the photo industry. It allowed to become experienced in digital photography, digital imaging, digital medical imaging and other important fields.

Wrote about the local economy, about Reader's Digest and other public companies. Broke stories about major Texaco discrimination case.

Wrote and researched articles of statewide interest for three Gannett Newspapers in Indiana. Working in bureau in Indianapolis.

Masters, Management

Bachelor'S, Newspaper Journalism

Activities and Societies: Daily Orange newspaper editor, 1984 to 1987. Minored in history. Won Award recognizing senior with most promise.