REPÚBLICA TAPS INDUSTRY VETERAN LOURDES MATEO DE ACOSTA TO LEAD ITS AWARD-WINNING PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE
Mateo de Acosta strengthens PR team with addition of Michelle Valdivia Ayala and Ana Echenique as account director and account manager, respectively
MIAMI — May 19, 2016 — República, one of America’s leading independent cross-cultural advertising, digital and communications agencies, today announced the appointment of Lourdes Mateo de Acosta to the post of senior vice president of communications. In this role, Mateo de Acosta, who previously served as a consultant to the agency, heads its public relations practice and provides strategic counsel for the agency and its blue-chip clients. Throughout her career, Mateo de Acosta has held senior management positions at top international public relations firms, including Edelman, Weber Shandwick Worldwide, FleishmanHillard, and Ketchum Public Relations.
A dynamic leader with more than 20 years experience in marketing and communications, as well as an entrepreneur, Mateo de Acosta boasts national and international expertise in high-level strategic counsel, media relations, consumer-driven marketing, social media strategy, content creation, special events, promotions and crisis/issues management across the entertainment, telecommunications, technology, automotive, consumer packaged goods, tourism, and healthcare industries, among others.
“I have long admired Lourdes as a solid communications and business leader and it has been a pleasure to have her join our senior management team,” said Jorge A. Plasencia, co-founder, chairman and CEO of República. “She not only personifies our agency’s values, but also brings a wealth of top-level national and international expertise and the kind of entrepreneurial spirit and passion that will continue to propel the agency’s growth,” added Plasencia.
Prior to República, Mateo de Acosta served as executive vice president and partner at H+M Communications where she oversaw general market, U.S. Hispanic and Latin American regional campaigns for clients including Comcast; XIX Entertainment; Crackle, a unit of Sony Pictures Television; F. Gaviña & Sons, makers of Don Francisco’s Coffee; and Café La Llave. Before joining H+M Communications, Mateo de Acosta founded de la Group Public Relations where she managed a variety of general market and U.S. Hispanic programs for clients such as the Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau and Best Buy’s Geek Squad, as well as multi-country Latin America-focused campaigns for blue-chip clients such as Yahoo and PayPal.
As part of our growth strategy for the agency’s PR practice, Mateo de Acosta has strengthened its award-winning team with the addition of two key roles: Michelle Valdivia Ayala as account director, and Ana Echenique as account manager.
Ayala brings more than 15 years of public relations and marketing experience, interfacing with both consumer and enterprise brands such as Nintendo, Telefónica, MTV Networks, and Canal+ Technologies. She has spent equal time among in-house and agency communications teams, including a seven-year tenure as marketing communications manager for global technology provider Opera Software, a public company in Oslo, Norway that she helped launch.
Echenique has more than six years of experience working on brand marketing programs for clients in consumer and beauty products, financial and professional services, and food and beverage sectors. She joins the agency from FleishmanHillard, where she worked as a senior account executive and helped manage public relations campaigns for clients including COVERGIRL, Head & Shoulders, and Pan-American Life Insurance, among others.
República was recently named one of the Top Places to Work in PR and Marketing in the U.S. by PR News.
