Deb Arnold
Strategic Communications Consultant

Who do you think you're talking to?

I partner with senior management to align communications with business goals:

• what do you want to achieve?
• who needs to be on board?
• what do they need to know?
• and just how might they feel about your goals?

This could entail crafting a board or investor presentation, or creating a comprehensive communications plan for the division of a major corporation. It's all about knowing:

Who do you think you're talking to?

If you know, your communications can be strategic and help you reach your objectives. If not, you clearly need to hire me right now.

• Distill complex ideas into simple messages
• Uncover the link between business challenges and communications solutions
• Create something from nothing - give me a blank canvas over a well-formulated plan any day of the week
• Help smart executives sell ideas by improving their presentations
• Solve business problems by asking the right people the right questions and effectively analyzing the answers
• Master new subjects quickly, e.g. writing a phenomenal press release about a complex technology two hours after learning of its existence

A few examples of my communications experience:

• Sales communications for a nationwide retail network
• Global communications for a worldwide account team serving a technology giant
• National business-to-business sales strategy for telecom leader

Projects I find most challenging and rewarding are those requiring entrepreneurial energy and thinking in a global context.

Referrals to senior management in a position to outsource communications expertise. Especially grand are referrals to executives who know they need this help.

• MBA from Columbia Business School (Marketing and Management)
• BA cum laude from Tufts University (International Relations)

Semesters abroad in Madrid and Jerusalem

I am a creative, results-driven strategist and writer with a track record that reflects my passion for technology, start-ups, non-profits and any opportunity to build something new.

I have developed successful strategies and vehicles for such industry leaders as Microsoft and T-Mobile, and prominent non-profits including the largest Israel fundraisers in the US and Canada and Israel's national museum and leading university. I also worked at Young & Rubicam Brands, one of the world's top marketing agencies, successfully pitching clients like HP, United Healthcare and Gannett and helping to launch the Microsoft account globally.

I lived for seven years in Israel, where I established my first communications consulting practice and was building Web sites before the dot-com era.

Now based in Seattle, I have lectured on business communications at Washington State University and am a pro bono communications advisor to Seattle's Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, the Kavana Jewish cooperative and critically-acclaimed choral ensemble Seattle Pro Musica, where I also sing Alto II.

I speak proficient Hebrew and Spanish and just enough French and Italian to pursue my love of travel and eating (preferably very well). A major foodie, I have won three amateur "Iron Chef" competitions for charity.