About Us

Any service company is only as good as its team, which is why ours comprises some of the most respected and accomplished people in communications. We take that combined experience and act as partners and trusted advisors for our clients.

Our team members include:

Veronica Skelton

Managing Partner

Veronica has been in the PR industry for two decades and brings a unique mixture of journalism, in-house, agency, consulting, and global business experience to the team. Her client experience ranges from helping run communications programs for powerhouse companies like Acer, American Express and Intel, to partnering with dozens of start-ups to launch and gain momentum during the dot com boom and Web 2.0 eras.

Based in San Francisco and a native of 'The City,' Veronica's roots as an award-winning college journalist led her into the PR world, and she is known for bringing high enthusiasm, integrity, good instincts and resourcefulness to her work ever since. Her experience backpacking around the world—twice—has also given her a unique perspective on people, the media, and the global economy.

Both a former Canadian and a former collegiate water polo goalie, Veronica combines a socialistic, team-oriented attitude with a tinge of toughness (she's had her nose broken after all!)

A co-founder of Concept, Veronica has held agency positions with Porter Novelli in Los Angeles, and Wilson McHenry Company in the Bay Area, as well as an in-house corporate communications position at Intuit. She is formerly the Vice President of the Public Relations Society of America - San Francisco Chapter.

Veronica loves any and all things related to entertainment, but is most entertained by her husband and two kids, who she lives with in Marin. She also loves a good, juicy story, which she usually gets from her neighbor Melissa.

Follow Veronica on Twitter @veronicaskelton.

Samantha Steinwinder

Managing Partner

Samantha has spent the past two decades running PR campaigns for established enterprises such as Microsoft and Intuit, to scrappy start-ups such as Isilon, Musicmatch and Archos. She's been on both sides of the client desk, managing the agency and running the agency, and she gives her clients a deep communications skill-set combined with fresh perspective and passion—all of which make referrals the top driver of Concept's business. Samantha's upbringing as an athlete (she played college volleyball and softball) drives much of her work today, where she thrives on teamwork and helping her clients beat the competition through savvy marketing and PR strategy.

Before starting her own business in 1999, Samantha was a vice president with Weber-Shandwick Worldwide, overseeing PR teams and strategies for Microsoft's MSN services. She has managed such diverse programs as the IPO of enterprise software company LBMS, to the island of Oahu and Hawaii's first technology park with Stryker Weiner & Associates in Honolulu. She began her career with pre-eminent Silicon Valley PR agency Wilson McHenry Company, launching Intuit's Quicken and QuickBooks.

Samantha loves to talk technology and consumer products—in front of the camera, on podcasts and on the phone with the media. Her strongest passion lies with her seven and five year-old daughters, Sydney and Harper, who are the stars of the family blog, see a lot of Facebook time from Mom and can teach us all a thing or two about technology.

Follow Samantha on Twitter @samsteinwinder.

Stacy Page

Account Executive

Stacy has spent much of her career helping businesses grow through both new and traditional marketing and PR strategies. Her deep love of writing, social media and journalism has quickly made her an asset in the PR world. From Internet start-ups to interior design firms, Stacy is able to quickly adapt to the needs of an individual company and best determine how to get its message heard.

After graduating with a degree in English from Loyola Marymount University, Stacy worked for Talenthouse, an online platform for artists. There, she executed various marketing campaigns, developed relationships with industry bloggers, and wrote content for the company website and blog. Most recently, she worked for the award-winning interior design firm, Marsh & Clark, acting as the lead publicist, including representing the firm at industry events and building relationships and visibility.

Born and raised in the Silicon Valley, Stacy learned her competitive edge at a young age among the Internet revolutionaries of her generation. She finds her inspiration in the colorful streets of her new home, San Francisco, and from the genuine loyalty of her goofy, black lab Barry.

Stacey Burbach

Managing Consultant

With more than a dozen years of both in-house and agency corporate communications experience across clients in the high-tech, enterprise B2B/B2C, and consumer marketplaces, Stacey's experience is rooted in strategic, audience-centric communications. Stacey started her career as a business consultant with Peterson Worldwide (now Navigant Consulting) and worked in the Construction and Government Contracts division for a little less than two years. She has worked with several Fortune 100 companies and some of the world's cutting-edge start-ups such as Aster Data/Teradata, Birst, MapR Technologies and Cloudwords.

Most recently, Stacey spent almost five years at Bite Communications where she served as a VP of Client Services and led the agency's corporate communications accounts for HP, Sybase, Sun Microsystems, Applied Materials and other leading technology companies. Prior to Bite, Stacey worked in the office of the CEO at Siebel Systems for nearly two years. Stacey also worked at Applied Communications before Siebel where she spent over four years working with companies including Oracle, Veritas, Symantec, SeeBeyond, X.com and Verisign.

Based in Arizona, Stacey lives with her husband and two children.

Sara Korolevich

Senior Consultant

Sara has more than a decade of experience working with clients in corporate communications ranging from consumer to high-tech, including six years at The Rogers Group in Los Angeles where she worked as a member of First 5 California's media team. Most recently, Sara has been instrumental in developing, implementing and executing corporate and product media strategies and tactics for B2B and B2C clients. Her relationships with key media, influencers and bloggers as well as connections with strategic analysts within the Big Data and analytics marketplace have strengthened her clients' ability to communicate across all audiences.

Sara has worked with consumer clients such as American Honda Motor Co., Washington Mutual and GoGoNews. Recently, Sara's focus has been on high-tech clients including Aster Data/Teradata, Applied Predictive Technologies, Think Big Analytics, MapR Technologies, Metamarkets and Tier 3.

Based in Arizona, Sara lives with her husband and two sons.

Sandy Pfaff

Senior Consultant

Sandy has worked in public relations and marketing for the past 15 years on the client and agency side. She has managed high-profile accounts for leading consumer and B2B brands across the technology, financial services, consumer products and food and beverage industries. In addition to expertise as a senior strategist and writer, Sandy continues to work with top-tier media and key influencers. She has also managed business development for several PR agencies giving her a unique perspective on the power of relationship building and the importance of connecting communications strategies with bottom-line results.

Sandy holds leadership roles at a number of non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. She serves on the Board of American Cancer Society's California Division and is on the Board of the Public Relations Society of America Silicon Valley Chapter. She also works on marketing and communications initiatives for Professional BusinessWomen of California.

Christa Gorham

Senior Consultant

Christa has over 17 years' experience in the high tech industry managing results driven, high-impact public relations and marketing programs and campaigns for Fortune 100 companies and startups. Her experience in communications ranges from messaging and positioning development, managing issues, corporate responsibility, consumer and BtoB campaigns, product launches, review programs, customer reference programs, speech writing and media relations. Christa is a veteran of high tech leaders Motorola, where for six years she managed a team overseeing development and implementation of public relations strategies, and Intel, where she held a variety of senior marketing and communications roles.

Christa has an MBA from Arizona State University and a BA in International Relations from San Francisco State University. She also has a professional certificate in Marketing from the University of California, Berkeley Extension.

She lives in San Diego, CA with her husband, young daughter and two dachshunds.

Krista Van Lewen

Senior Consultant

Krista Van Lewen is a strategic-minded public relations and marketing communications professional with more than 20 years of experience, primarily in the technology, non-profit and entertainment industries. After spending eight years with Discovery Networks, she fulfilled a longtime dream of living in San Francisco. In Silicon Valley, she gained a reputation for putting numerous startup companies on the map in addition to raising visibility further for well-known names. Her clients include Hewlett-Packard, Cisco (Flip Video, Linksys and Valet), Time-Warner Home Video, Wordnik, Third Age Media, LookSmart, One True Media, Healthline Networks and The Dealmap (acquired by Google). She also helped launch Kiva.org, one of the fastest growing nonprofits in history.

Through her years in agency and in-house PR roles, Krista has created and managed scores of marketing, public relations and social media campaigns; developed messaging and branding for products and services; managed press and analyst relations; assisted companies as they entered the IPO phase; provided company executives with PR counsel and crisis communications strategies; and served as company spokesperson.

Krista holds a B.S. in Scientific and Technical Communications from Michigan Technological University. During her free time, she can usually be found outdoors—hiking, skiing, biking or running with her Boxer, Tillie.