Executive Team
Aaron R. Kwittken
CEO / Managing Partner
During Aaron’s 19-year public relations career, his expertise and performance have resulted in a rapid ascent through the industry, ultimately culminating in his founding of Kwittken & Company (KCO). Since he began his career as a 19-year-old intern at Manning Selvage & Lee, Aaron has always striven for excellence in public relations and has sought to surround himself with the best and brightest colleagues in the business.
A vice president at Fleishman Hillard by 25, an executive vice president of Ketchum managing 250 people by 29, a president handpicked to resurrect Internet PR agency Euro RSCG Middleberg by 31, Aaron has enjoyed spectacular success and was recognized by PR Week in 2007 as one of the nation’s top 40 public relations professionals under the age of 40. His services have been requested by numerous iconic brands and blue-chip companies including, but not limited to, IBM, MCI, Yahoo!, Mercedes-Benz USA, British Airways, Absolut Spirits, Cantor-Fitzgerald, Heineken USA, America Online, Schering Plough, D&B, Reuters, S&P, Visa International, Goldman Sachs, Bell South, Consumer’s Union, KPMG and Deloitte & Touche.
Founded by Aaron in 2005, three-years-young boutique agency KCO already boasts annual revenue approaching $4 million and an impressive client roster, which spans the healthcare, fashion, consumer-products, technology, education, ecommerce, media, B2B and licensing industries. Select KCO clients include Stryker, Towers Perrin, U.S. News Media Group, Hoover’s, Cengage, The Sharper Image, First Advantage and Paul Stuart. The company was also named the best new agency of the year by The Holmes Report in 2006 and won honorable mention as best small agency of the year at the 2007 PR Week awards.
As a CEO who enjoys client interaction, Aaron makes a point to work very closely with a majority of KCO’s clients, providing strategic counsel and day-to-day management oversight. His core areas of expertise include brand management, crisis communications, issues management, trade and national media relations, multicultural communications, corporate social responsibility programming, blogging, online communications and integrated marketing communications. Aaron also runs the agency’s spokesperson training program, preparing some of the most recognized names in business for discussions with journalists, analysts and other audiences in order to sell products or services, clarify issues or advocate positions.
Aaron believes that it is important to give back to the public relations profession as well as the community. Formerly, Aaron worked as an adjunct professor of marketing and communications at New York University, educating a new generation of communications professionals. He also contributes to his industry through his active membership in the Public Relations Society of America and his role on the Council of PR Firms Agency Management Committee. In addition, he participates as a board member of the Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS).
His remarkable dedication to his career has not, however, held Aaron back from his life outside the office. He coaches his son’s little league team in Armonk, N.Y., where he lives with his wife and two children. Despite working long hours and constantly attending to clients’ needs, Aaron is also not comfortable living the sedentary life and challenges himself by running triathlons and participating in yoga.
Aaron earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and speech communication at The George Washington University.
akwittken@kwitco.com
Jason Schlossberg
President/Partner
Jason works daily with most of Kwittken & Company’s clients in either the capacity of agency creative director or as a senior account lead. As creative director, Jason is charged with ensuring that all agency account teams develop unique, innovative and media-neutral communications programs that embrace both traditional and alternative media vehicles and tactics. As a senior account lead, he plays an integral and hands-on role in developing highly targeted programs that involve corporate positioning, branding, extensive media relations, promotional campaigns, product launches and issues management.
A communications generalist by choice, Jason refuses to silo or limit his work to one industry or category, choosing instead to work with companies, brands and products that he finds intellectually stimulating, exciting and challenging. He strongly believes that a diverse client base and experience set leads to fresh, original and creative programming and big-idea development.
As a result of this philosophy, Jason has extensive experience in consumer, healthcare, human capital, retail, publishing, corporate and technology marketing. Jason has worked closely with industry leaders such as Yahoo!, Mercedes-Benz USA, The Absolut Spirits Company, Towers Perrin, Weight Watchers, Stryker Orthopaedics, First Health, Take-Two Interactive (the parent company of Rockstar Games), CVS/pharmacy and the leading Japanese retailer, UNIQLO, among others.
Over the past several years Jason has been exploring the world of buzz marketing by incorporating a number of exciting and new tactics into his clients’ programs including word of mouth, viral, gaming, guerrilla and blogosphere communications.
Prior to co-founding Kwittken & Company, Jason was a senior vice president at Euro RSCG Magnet (formerly Middleberg + Associates). Jason was at Euro RSCG Magnet for nearly seven years in a number of roles. He was the founding member and leader of the Agency’s Health & Human Capital practice and the co-founder of the Agency’s PopWorx practice, a group dedicated to nontraditional communications tactics. In 2003, Jason led the U.S. public relations effort around Euro RSCG’s research on the emergence of “Metrosexuals,” helping to create one of the year’s biggest buzzwords.
Before joining Euro RSCG Magnet, Jason was a member of Ruder Finn’s Strategic Communications Group.
Jason’s first career was academics. While working as a research assistant in New York University’s department of cinema studies, he earned a master’s degree. During his two-year tenure in that department, he assisted with research for the book, “The Sounds of Commerce”, and was asked to present his original scholarship at conferences around the world.
Jason earned a bachelor’s degree in socio-cultural anthropology with a minor degree in creative writing from the University of California, San Diego.
jschlossberg@kwitco.com
Gabrielle Zucker Acevedo
Managing Director
Gabrielle plays an integral role in determining the strategic direction of clients’ integrated communications campaigns and spearheads efforts to create high-level thought leadership opportunities.
Gabrielle has an extensive understanding of the healthcare, education, technology and financial services industries, including work within insurance and reinsurance, stock, bond, commodities, options/derivatives and energy markets, as well as a focus on credit risk, electronic trading, online brokerages and traditional banking. Her focus on creating and increasing awareness for her clients among key audiences, advocates and influencers, earned Gabrielle national recognition, receiving a SABRE award in 2004.
Previously, Gabrielle served as vice president of the Corporate & Financial Practice at Euro RSCG Magnet and was responsible for growing the practice and cultivating relationships with key financial services, technology and education companies. Before joining Magnet, she managed the public relations division of VMW, Inc., an investor relations firm handling small- and medium-cap clients. In this role, Gabrielle worked closely with publicly held companies on shareholder communications and investor relations.
Throughout her career, Gabrielle has managed public relations campaigns across financial services, healthcare, technology, consumer and other vertical industries. Key clients include AIG, Cantor Fitzgerald and their subsidiary eSpeed (Nasdaq:ESPD), Stryker Orthopedics, U.S.News & World Report, Seventh Generation, Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC) and their subsidiaries Thomson Financial, Thomson Healthcare, Thomson Scientific and Thomson Learning (now Cengage Learning), Scottrade, DBM, Resources Global Professionals (Nasdaq: RECN), Automated Trading Desk, Take-Two Interactive (Nasdaq:TTWO) and their subsidiary Rockstar Games, First Data (NYSE:FDC), Kiodex, and Soleil Securities, among others.
gzucker@kwitco.com
Ellie Jones Rossi
Managing Director
Ellie Rossi is responsible for creating high-level editorial collateral and messaging platforms for clients and for offering clients editorial counsel on a broad array of communications and thought-leadership initiatives. In addition, Ellie draws upon her 10-plus years as a journalist to support the agency’s executive communications coaching practice by helping clients to prepare for and capitalize on media interviews.
Before joining Kwittken & Company, Ellie was a vice president at Euro RSCG Magnet for six years. Prior to joining Euro RSCG Magnet, Ellie spent over 10 years working as a reporter, editor and writer for a variety of media outlets.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Ellie double-majored in English and the history and sociology of science.
erossi@kwitco.com
