General Info:
With more than 15 years of public relations and marketing experience, Al Sommers offers a wide array of strategic communications services to help clients reach target audiences and achieve their business objectives. He orchestrates campaigns for small to large-sized associations, businesses, corporations, government entities and non-profit organizations. Services include media relations, community outreach, grassroots campaigns, special events, government relations and crisis communications. Sommers' experience includes work for diverse regional and national brands representing the civic, energy, entertainment, financial, government, health care, non-profit, retail, real estate, sports and transportation sectors. Prior to forming Sommers Public Relations, Sommers served as Vice President of Account Management for Elizabeth Christian & Associates Public Relations (formerly Christian-Hubble Media & Communications). He also held Senior Account Executive and Public Relations Manager roles with Denver-based Barnhart/CMI Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations. Additional experience includes account service positions with the Denver office of The Jefferson Group, a Washington, D.C.-based government relations and public relations firm as well as Shirley Barr Public Relations and Vollmer Public Relations, both in Houston. In the community, Sommers is involved with various civic and professional organizations, including the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and The University of Texas Ex-Students' Association (Texas Exes). Sommers graduated with honors from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Journalism degree, emphasis Public Relations. He is recognized as an Accredited Public Relations (APR) practitioner. Zane Cochran brings five years of experience and a diverse skill set to the Sommers Public Relations team including public relations, marketing, graphic design, website development and interactive and HTML e-mail design. As a senior account executive, he has worked on a wide variety of accounts including Jeep 48STRAIGHT, CRSA-Longhorn Village, Taylor Morrison, Capital CDC, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Legend Communities. Prior to joining Sommers PR, Cochran worked as a consultant for Liant Software, TV2Me and RGI, Inc, where he developed marketing strategies and interactive campaigns. Cochran graduated with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin with degree in Public Relations and continues to be involved in its Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter. Katherine Drye assists with a variety of public relations and graphic design projects for Sommers Public Relations and has had the opportunity to work with clients for both their local and national campaigns. As an account coordinator, her public relations activities include writing, media outreach, tracking of news coverage and general research, while on the graphic design side, Drye assists with logo creation, design layout, image editing and photo retouching. Drye has worked with clients such as The Austin Boat Show, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, EnCana Oil & Gas, Jeep 48STRAIGHT, Longhorn Village and Taylor Morrison. Jared Hill works predominantly on interactive development at Sommers Public Relations, in addition to print and logo design. Hill graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin with a magazine journalism degree. His experience includes online and print media design, as well as writing and editing news articles for publications such as The Daily Texan and Envy Magazine. Prior to joining Sommers Public Relations, Hill worked as a graphic designer at Texas Architect Magazine, where he assisted with layout and advertisement design. He also worked as a junior web developer for D Magazine. Matthew Bromley of Graphic Engine Design brings more than a decade of design prowess to his local and national clientele. Bromley's assistance to comp