Lucy Siegel

* My firm offers corporate and marketing communications services with a particular emphasis on helping foreign companies in the U.S. market and launching start-ups. Our experience, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer, spans industries ranging from healthcare to technology, travel/hospitality and financial services.

* I founded Bridge in 2004 after five years at Publicis, where I co-directed public relations at the New York headquarters of Publicis Dialog, managing the agency's public relations staff and overseeing work for PR clients. Bridge is the second public relations firm I founded. I ran the first one for seven years before selling it to a larger agency in the late 1990s.

* My staff and I understand international differences in business and communications and can help bridge the gap. I lived in Japan and worked there for a Japanese public relations firm earlier in my career and have a strong sense of cross-cultural communications difficulties that foreign companies experience in the U.S.

* We meet client needs with whatever communications disciplines are most effective to reach target audiences, forming teams of colleagues from affiliate agencies

* Our national and international network of top-notch communications colleagues in PR Boutiques International are ready to help with assignments

* I can speak on the topics of:
- How and why public relations works
- Understanding the media: the first step in obtaining media coverage
- How start-ups can develop visibility and reputations out of proportion to their size
- The challenges of cross-cultural communications
- How PR and social media fit into multi-channel marketing programs