Our mission is to create dynamic, powerful, cost-effective marketing, sales, and public relations campaigns that are as unique as our clients and that enable them to reach their target audience and achieve measurable results in meeting their business objectives.
At KVD Communications, we know how hard you work at your business, and how important it is to run a tight ship – because we do the same. We know that no matter how big you are, waste and inefficiency are always the enemy.
We are a team of individuals having varied expertise, and we work together as projects demand. We run our company with up-to-the-minute efficiency, exploiting technology to bridge geography, link top talent and extend the value of our team members’ skills, knowledge and experience.
We are wedded not to a place, but to powerful and effective action that serves our clients. We are attached not to a street address, but to a world of individualized concepts and creativity. We are committed not to office space, but to putting in place the smartest strategies at a fair price. We are fast, flexible, and quick to adapt. Like a strike force assembled to achieve a specific goal, we marshal our forces to serve just one client: you.
KATHLEEN DUDA
• President • KVD Communications
For more than 20 years, Kathleen Duda has been bringing intelligence, creativity and commitment to the work of providing public relations, sales, marketing and promotional services to diverse clients in a variety of industries.
Beginning in 1983, Kathleen spent five years as an Executive Vice President at Shearson/American Express, holding supervisory positions in the Marketing, Incentives, and Corporate Events divisions. Her responsibilities included budgeting, as well as planning and producing business meetings and conferences, cultural sponsorships and sporting events worldwide. She interacted frequently with senior management, international government and cultural agencies, and the firm’s most important clients.
In 1988, Kathleen established Marketing Solutions and began providing similar services to corporations and the travel industry. She generated communication and marketing strategies and served as a consultant to tourism and trade offices, including those of Egypt and Morocco, that were developing new approaches for the American market.
In the early 1990s, Kathleen expanded her services to provide a complete suite of public relations, marketing and sales services to a growing list of clients facing new geopolitical and economic challenges. In the years since, she has developed thorough expertise in luxury properties and international destinations, categories that overlap with the lifestyle products and services that were part of Kathleen’s earlier career experiences. She spent four years at Estée Lauder, where she managed the corporate art collection and assisted Estée Lauder International Chairman Ronald S. Lauder on special projects and during the launch and expansion of key product lines. In that regard, she gained a thorough understanding of high-end retail product lines in an arena defined by style, aesthetics and caché.
She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Morocco, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand, and she spent five years as a legislative aide with the New York State Legislature’s Labor Committee. As a Manhattanite dedicated to serving her community, she has spent many years supporting a major gastronomic event benefitting Share-Our-Strength (SOS), whose proceeds go to feeding the hungry in New York and has sponsored a child through Save the Children for the last 15 years.
Equally important as her talent, energy and experience, however, is the sensibility that Kathleen brings to her work, that she has in common with her clients and that is reflected in her commitment only to excellence, but to aesthetics and vision as well. Beyond her hotel clients’ passion for luxury and dedication to gracious service is a love of architecture and interior design, whether expressed in the frescoes of a historic hilltop villa or the play of light and angles in a contempory seaside structure. The restaurants she represents integrate refined design and evolved cuisine; her chefs are trailblazers of taste and style. She promotes tourism with an eye to the nuance and essence of place. It is this shared sensibility that enables Kathleen not only to work with her clients, but to connect with them in a way that dramatically enhances their ability to achieve critical market objectives.
Clifford Blodgett, Account Executive
Clifford joined the team in June of 2008. Previously to this appointment he had worked at DoubleDown Media as an Assistant Managing Editor, where he became the Managing Editor to such titles as Players Club, The Cigar Report, and Fight On! Prior to this he launched the Parade All-American High School Football Web site and was the Senior Associate Editor for The Golfer.
Clifford brings a unique skill set to the medium of Public Relations all stemming from his background in publishing, both in print and Web. Relying on his Masters Degree in English/Creative Writing, he is an accomplished writer and his knowledge of the publishing industry, ability to communicate with people make him a valuable asset.
Haley Wiley, Account Executive
Haley has a combined experience in hotel/resort sales and an educational background in architecture. She initiated her career in the travel field working for U.S. Airways Express in Cincinnati, before taking a position in sales and marketing for the hospitality and tourism industries in New York for Kathleen.
Passionate about hotels and building design around the world, she pursued studies in architecture. Haley returns to KVD Communications after earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architectural Design from Parsons School of Design.
Evelyn St. Germain
Evelyn has spent 25 years within the travel industry. She has assisted in opening 7 hotels, and has held numerous positions within the hotel business. Her tenure includes positions with prestigious hotels; Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Kea Lani Hotel, Emerald Hotels -Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, Hawaiian Regent and Pan Pacific in Anaheim. Prior to starting LMG she was Dir. Of Sales and Marketing worldwide for the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort in French Polynesia, now an Orient Express Hotel .
She has been a featured Marketing/Tourism speaker at UCLA, Golden West Colleges and for the So. California Bridal Consultants Association. Her relationship with numerous Tourism Boards, airlines, hotels and resorts, wholesalers and other industry vendors, and travel journalists have made her an invaluable asset to her clients. She is a member of MPI, SITE, Ka Ohana O Kaleponi, South Bay Women In Travel, and frequently attends many other Travel industry related events. Evelyn has also been the Chair for the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce Women In Business committee for two years, and a member since 2001.
Evelyn also devotes time to fundraising for several non-profit organizations. She was recently honored by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for her 12 years of dedication. She enjoys entertaining friends and family, playing tennis, cooking. When she is not traveling for her clients, she resides in Manhattan Beach with her husband Sam and sons Ryan and Dylan.
