Wind Communications Continues Strategic Growth with Addition of Kara Lira

Kara Lira (LinkedIn) has joined Wind Communications, adding one of the AR community’s top AR operations professionals to our growing firm, and improving customer support in areas including planning, reporting and process management. 

Kara has been in analyst relations since 1999, and while her experience includes core analyst relationship management, her expertise in analyst relations operations (including strategic and tactical functions to support strategy, sales, and marketing) expands our capabilities, and those of the client AR teams we serve. 

Among the many projects Kara has lead over her career to date, she has created: 

• internal knowledge management sites allowing centralized access to content and resources to support sales and marketing

• detailed reporting to provide a unique perspective into analyst relations activities (using ARchitect) to help demonstrate ROI

• internal communications to share key analyst reports and coverage with leadership

• external communications to share key announcements and client wins with the analyst community

• management of logistics for many successful analyst events, in both the US and Europe

Kara spent over 20 years in analyst relations at Capgemini before moving into a role supporting the analyst relations program at Microsoft for IoT, edge computing, manufacturing, and field enablement. Most recently, she was with Cognizant leading analyst relations operations for their large global program. 

Our personal history with Kara started decades ago at Capgemini, and our connection to her has remained strong as we watched her skills and the industry practice of AR Ops develop. By making her knowledge and talents available to a broad range of companies, we see a wide opportunity for clients to reap the benefits of a well designed AR Ops program, either as a dedicated program to improve communication and impact of AR across their stakeholders, or as an enhancement to our core AR services.

As we begin our second decade of providing focused AR support to companies large and small, we remain committed to growing through the addition of seasoned AR professionals ready to jump in for added bandwidth on an existing AR team, or serving as the external AR function for companies looking for dedicated, experienced resources to manage analyst interactions.

Wind Communications Continues Growth with Addition of Laurence Bachellerie in London

Wind Communications is adding another strong AR professional to our roster, the first team member outside of the US. Analysts live around the world, and for the most part, their coverage is global. Market reports and recommendations are based on the companies' ability to serve their customers where their customers are, regardless of the location of their headquarters. It makes sense then, if you are an analyst relations agency, to have resources that allow for seamless international support, particularly if you have the opportunity to work with a professional like Laurence Bachellerie. 

We have known Laurence since we all worked together at a fast-rising technology PR firm based in New York in the late 90s. Like Patty and Beth, Laurence then moved on to become a key member of the Capgemini analyst relations team as the millennium dawned. Laurence has now been based in London for many years, and has been busy helping clients in technology and sustainability meet a variety of pan-European marketing goals.

Laurence brings great experience and capabilities to the firm. She has a solid foundation in analyst relations, a broad understanding of marketing communications, and understands how AR can help feed PR, content marketing, business development and more. She is multilingual, including her native French, adopted English, Italian and German. She gives Wind Communications a geographic diversity for those attractive, but to date impractical, UK events and time zone challenges. In addition, she has done it all herself for years, so she gets our do-everything culture. We are expanding our footprint to include a third key technology market (New England, Austin, and now London), and look forward to Laurence’s contribution to the organization.