Our team
Meet our senior team at Citizen Paine.
Daryl McCullough,
CEO
With 25 years in the fields of public relations and marketing, and more than 15 of them at Citizen Paine, Daryl McCullough serves the firm as CEO, lead strategist and creative director.
His expertise in the areas of strategic communications includes areas of research and strategic planning, media relations and social media strategy, marketing of B2C and B2B products/services, lifestyle and brand marketing, experiential and special events, promotions and crisis communications.
Daryl was named PR Professional of the Year in 2009 by the Public Relations Society of America in Los Angeles. He's recipient of numerous awards, including the "Best of Silver Anvil Award" for the launch of XM Satellite Radio. Daryl holds a master's degree in communications management from the Annenberg School for Communications at University of Southern California.
Beth Balsam,
Managing Partner
Beth Balsam joined Citizen Paine more than seven years ago. A senior communications strategist, Beth oversees Citizen Paine's global and NA relationship with Procter & Gamble, which includes Pampers, Old Spice, Iams, Duracell and Ivory. Her areas of specialty are in consumer branding and lifestyle marketing with an expertise in corporate social responsibility and issues management.
Beth has been instrumental in creating or enhancing award-winning campaigns for P&G, including Pampers/UNICEF One Pack = One Vaccine and the Duracell Power Lodge which invited visitors toTimes Square to pedal special bicycles that captured their energy, which was then used to light up 2011 as the ball dropped on New Year's Eve. Both of these campaigns have been so successful they have been reapplied in other regions and/or have been slated for another run in North America.
In addition to her role as a strategic leader at Citizen Paine, Beth has earned a reputation for being able to connect to almost anyone. An avid puzzler, Beth enjoys the challenge of being able to "move the pieces" around the board to get to her target. Plus she's a "talker," which you'll quickly realize if you get seated next to her on a flight.
Eric Borsum,
Managing Partner
As a leader in Citizen Paine's Los Angeles office, Eric counsels corporate, government and non-profit entities on strategic planning, issues management, and internal/external relations.
Over the course of more than two decades, Eric has developed deep experience targeting culturally and economically diverse audiences through multifaceted social marketing campaigns on issues such as sexual violence prevention, service and volunteering, emergency preparedness, maternal and child health, health care access for children, nutrition education/obesity prevention, financial aid for higher education, cancer prevention, mentoring, teen pregnancy prevention, family planning, and sustainable business practices. Clients have included Procter & Gamble, California Student Aid Commission, Los Angeles Unified School District, DIRECTV, General Motors, California Department of Public Health, The Drucker Institute, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and Points of Light Institute.
Eric currently serves on the board of directors of Town Hall Los Angeles and on communication advisory committees for organizations ranging from the University of Michigan and the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles to the American Cancer Society. Actively engaged on business and community issues, Eric has executive produced two social justice films, is a member of the LA Community Leaders Network, and serves on California's Business Partners Advisory Group at the request of the California agency of service and volunteering.
Laura Bremer,
Managing Partner
Laura Bremer’s expertise lies in setting and creating public relations strategy for major household brands. In her nearly 20 years of experience, Laura has extensive background in consumer packaged goods, fashion and retail PR, where she has managed and executed large scale product launches, built buzz, engaged influencers and redefined brand attributes.
Laura is currently a Managing Partner in the New York office overseeing the Kraft portfolio, which includes the Trident, Dentyne, Stride, Green & Blacks, and Halls brands, P&G Pet Care and an upstream initiative for P &G’s MDO group. In addition to managing a team of professionals, she is responsible for setting strategic and creative direction for existing clients, as well as new business.
Before joining the PainePR team in September of 2010, she co-founded and ran a boutique public relations and marketing services firm, SullivanBremer, managing ongoing client and project work for corporations and leading agencies. Prior to that, she was a Senior Vice President at DeVries Public Relations where she led a variety of accounts including Gap Inc.’s Old Navy brand, P&G’s Noxzema and the Crest/Oral Care business for P&G. In that role, Laura led the massive public relations program recognized by P&G as playing a crucial role in creating the $2 billion whitening category and helped redefine the Crest brand as credible player in the beauty category. She also launched the very first beauty website, Reflect.com, a P&G venture as well as a successful test market launch for the P&G Future Works brand, Bella & Birch.
Laura received her BA in English writing and literature from Fairfield University. She currently lives in Connecticut with her husband, three children and two dogs.
Chris Chamberlin,
Managing Partner
Chris Chamberlin is a reputation management expert with nearly 15 years experience helping clients manage complex issues, diverse stakeholder relationships, and corporate communications and brand engagement challenges. He carries specific strengths in the planning and execution of a wide variety of sustainability and social responsibility initiatives, particularly for clients involved in the energy, natural resources, transportation, food and consumer goods industries.
Chris’ work in environmental responsibility has been recognized with several regional and national industry awards. The program he helped lead in support of the public affairs initiatives at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver was recognized by The Holmes Report as one of the Top Five PR Programs of the Decade.
More recently, Chris has led several sustainability initiatives on behalf of Procter & Gamble, including its Earth Day 2010 launch of a conservation education platform called Future Friendly and its social responsibility initiative, GIVE, which AdWeek identified as one of the top 10 cause campaigns of the year in 2010.
A resident of Venice, CA, Chris is a Managing Partner at PainePR, overseeing the agency’s sustainability offering and serving as the General Manager of the firm’s Los Angeles office.
Cynthia Rude,
Managing Partner
Cynthia joined Citizen Paine in 1993. With 22 years of client service experience, Cynthia has worked with some of the world's leading brand names, including Iams, Ancestry.com, Levi's, Polaroid, Toshiba, Blockbuster, United Airlines, Hyundai and XM Satellite Radio. With multiple Silver Anvil awards (the PR industry's most recognized award program) for her strategic client leadership, Cynthia is passionate about insight driven programming, integrated campaigns and maintaining an "upstream" view on behalf of clients.
Cynthia turned her career focus inward in January 2009, in order to lead Citizen Paine's employee career development and training program, human resources and the agency's unique culture. In 2011, Cynthia was named Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all aspects of Citizen Paine's internal infrastructure. Not one to lose sight of her creative side, Cynthia continues to provide communications support to agency brand teams in strategy sessions and one-on-one meetings.
Cynthia's attention to detail and ability to understand the motivations of a given target audience have served her well in both her external and internal agency roles. Cynthia believes in full transparency and the laws of continual improvement, as well as making sure that all program elements ladder up to a defined business strategy and goal. And to hedge her bets, she also believes in the expression "all things work out because they have to."
Prior to joining Citizen Paine, Cynthia spent more than three years with global PR agency Hill & Knowlton in their automotive and sports marketing practice. She is a graduate of California State University, Chico and was inducted into the College of Communication's PR Hall of Fame in 2006. Cynthia is a mother of two, wife of one and loves to write music in her spare time.