Bridgette Borst Ombres

The Commsultant

Professional communications consulting: Media strategy and pitching, PR, communications planning, thought leadership, content marketing and media training. To learn more, please visit www.thecommsultant.com

Principal Consultant

Tigercomm

Senior Counselor, Media Relations

Angle42

Media Relations Strategist

Sonder London

Lead media strategist 

A2U is a national IT services provider dedicated to developing business-optimizing solutions for clients across a wide range of verticals, specializing in healthcare. We are one of about 30 Citrix Platinum Partners in the country. For more information, visit a2u.net

● Serve as company spokesperson and primary point of contact for media.
● Develop marketing communications strategy and oversee all brand touch points. 
● Provide media training to C-suite in advance of media interviews; provide public speaking coaching to executives in advance of speaking engagements. 
● Oversee lead generation through IMC campaigns to support business goals. 
● Write, edit print and digital content for internal and external audiences.
● Manage relationships with vendors, sponsors, freelancers and designers.
● Oversaw new website development and launch.
● Developed company’s first comprehensive crisis communications plan.
● As part of strategic thought leadership program, pitched and secured following industry awards and recognition - 2016 and 2017 Fastest Growing Technology Company in Pittsburgh, CRN Next Gen 250 List, CIOReview Top 20 Citrix Solutions Providers Nationally, Pittsburgh Business Ethics Award Finalist, CEO of the Year Award.
● Supervise marketing staff and interns.

Vice President, Communications and Strategic Partnerships

● Media trained more than 350 spokespeople for print, radio and television interviews.
● Develop communications strategy and key messaging; write communications plans, SOWs, speeches, talking points, op-eds, press releases, media advisories, blog posts, reporter backgrounders and web/social copy. 
● Pitch story ideas to reporters; earning over 1,200 news stories across local, state and national media outlets in less than two years. 
● Spearhead planning of firm’s integrated marketing plan – conducting market research and analysis, improving SEO, driving online engagement and developing digital strategies to achieve firm’s business goals.
● Drive strategic media relationship-building activities; built relationships with 100+ reporters across the country.
● Customized, implemented 12-month thought leadership program comprised of three different components (bylines, whitepapers and conferences) for global wind company’s U.S. president. Program was strategically designed to build brand and visible industry expertise.
● Co-conducted communications audit for national environmental research organization, which involved interviewing 70 staff members and reviewing more than 10 communications products. 
● Provide counsel on crisis communications and issue management; manage press events, track media coverage for regular client reporting.
● Established Tigercomm-U internship program; serve on George Mason University Employer Advisory Board and speak at forums throughout the year hosted by George Washington University and American University. 
● Oversee digital marketing practice, develop proposals and pitch new business.
● Manage relationships with existing news monitoring and media intelligence software partners such as: Cision, Meltwater, iQMedia and LexisNexis.
● Lead execution of scope of work, manage staffing and budgets for client accounts.

Senior Account Executive and Digital Director

University of Charleston

● Help develop the crisis communications plan and annual communications plan as part of the University's Integrated Marketing team. Convey information to key audiences with University President.
● Manage daily social media for University Facebook and Twitter accounts - increased alumni Facebook following by over 60 percent.
● Spearheaded an alumni directory effort that increased physical addresses by 2,400 and email addresses by over 1,000 in University database.
● In collaboration with UC Center for Career Development, established University mentoring program (PASS) and inaugural Professional Development Institute; developed career services programs that drove a 90 percent placement rate of University of Charleston graduates in jobs within six months of graduation; placed more than 500 students and recent graduates in internships or jobs across the country between 2010 and 2014.
● Planned and executed University events including: Homecoming & Family Weekend, regional alumni/donor events, Admissions events, Parent Orientation, speed-networking events and other career services programs.
● Supported fundraising and campaign goals through PR.
● Built thousands of relationships with alumni, donors, parents, students, community members and employers.
● Surveyed students, recent graduates and employers twice a year to collect and analyze data for Graduate Placement Report.

Director of Alumni Communications

Appalachian Children's Chorus

● Developed strategic, integrated marketing communications plan.
● Managed media relations.
● Created video content for social media.
● Served as one of the spokespersons - attending community events and developing partnerships with other organizations to support fundraising initiatives.

Board of Directors, Vice President of Marketing & Development

WTOV News 9

● Built relationships within the community and served as spokesperson for charity events. 
● Shot b-roll and conducted interviews with community members and public officials.
● Reported LIVE and breaking news stories, in addition to pre-recorded news stories.
● Conducted research/due diligence on story ideas, wrote script and edited video at least three news stories for television and website per day.

TV News Reporter

● Planned annual activity calendar for UC students, parents of students, prospective students and their families.
● Managed events such as concerts, comedy shows, educational programs, student fundraisers, awards and scholarship banquets.
● Operated within set budget, and facilitated interdepartmental services for events through catering, security, maintenance and audio/visual departments on campus.
● Supervised over 40 student organizations, and taught University 101-102 (First-Year Experience) course.

Coordinator of Student Programs

About me: Former TV journalist turned global PR consultant helping forward-thinking brands from Silicon Valley to Singapore get in front of customer-facing ecosystems and tell their story. 

Let’s unpack that ☝️

Growing brand awareness for corporate giants and scrappy startups alike, my work in innovative industries has involved: solar farms and sheep grazing, crypto crime detection, a heat brick battery decarbonizing heavy industry across fashion and food, historic steel factories powering the clean energy revolution, an AR company building robots for retail workers and AI voicebots trained to upskill live agents – and more.

Whether it’s a one-off funding announcement or a long-term, strategic thought leadership program – if you want to get noticed, I’ll help you get the right message to the right audience at the right time. 

But, results speak louder than words. 

🏆 12-month thought leadership plan resulted in a 1,400% increase in top exec mentions in online news. This visibility boost translated to more qualified leads, secured speaking opportunities, and significant social media growth.

🏆 Planned/executed with an account team an event in a remote location that attracted the governor and generated coverage by half the stations in a major media market, a 6-hour round trip from the event.

🏆 Consistently land top-tier media interviews with outlets such as Good Morning America, Wall Street Journal, NBC News, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes and TechCrunch, as well as priority trade media.

No two days are alike.

One day, I’m handling media interviews at a star-studded event aimed at inspiring climate action with a quarter-million people on the National Mall. Another day, I’m organizing a press conference and tour for state officials at a new wind farm at a historic cattle ranch in rural Arizona. Sometimes I hole away in my office to translate an SME’s geek speak to street speak, or write talking points, an op-ed or speaker/award nominations. 

Big project? Need more hands? I’m skilled at assembling account teams of marcom experts. 

Get in touch at bridgetteborst@gmail.com.

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🫣 Want to hear my story in Biz Insider on the pressures of motherhood + hustle culture? https://bit.ly/4fmMsJY

⭐ Trying to refocus and level up in your career? Here’s my advice: bit.ly/4d54X3s

💓 The one reason I pivoted from my vp of comms role mid-pandemic (hint: she’s 6-years-old and headed to school this fall): https://bit.ly/4daXHmE

😵‍💫 Are you trying to figure out how to effectively communicate on organizational change? I’ve been there: https://bit.ly/4fe74DQ

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