David Kaufer
Hi, I'm David Kaufer, co-founder of Green Buzz PR. If you're reading this, it must mean you are interested in learning something about me and Teresa. Or else you're a relative or friend wondering how well I represent myself in my bio. In either case, I can provide a quick answer.
My experience has been both varied and interesting - something for which I'm very grateful. I'm one of the lucky few who actually followed a career from my college major. I studied journalism with an emphasis in public relations at the University of Oregon - where my love for Duck athletics bloomed.
I cut my PR teeth at Waggener Edstrom, joining the firm when it was still fewer than 30 employees and Microsoft was the third largest software company in the U.S. Five years later I had learned a ton but was ready for a change so I packed my bags (literally) and took a personal sabbatical, riding my hybrid bicycle across Europe the summer of 1992. Three thousand miles, seven countries and three months later, I returned and decided to start my own PR agency that would also focus on technology companies. I co-founded and managed Kaufer Miller Communications, a successful technology-based public relations/investor relations firm based in Bellevue, Wash., in the 1990s. It was a lot of fun growing the firm from two to 25 employees and helping many start-up companies (and careers) take off.
But after spending the first 10 years of my career on the agency side of business, I decided to give corporate life a go. A colleague recruited me to Cisco Systems to work as Communications Manager for CEO John Chambers, and I later helped start the first sponsorship marketing program and group in the company.
Following the dot com bubble and bust, I found myself at Comcast Cable, where I worked as Director of Communications for Northern California Region - in charge of everything from the internal employee newsletters to serving as senior producer of Comcast Local Edition, a five-minute local news segment. While at Comcast, I took full advantage of my authority by placing myself in front of the camera for on screen interviews with lifelong hero Joe Montana as well as baseball Hall of Famers Juan Marichel and Orlando Cepeda.
During my time at Comcast, I caught the Green bug and decided to pursue a career in sustainability and return to the Northwest, where I've helped create multiple Green companies including GreenforGood, Green Media List and Green Buzz PR.
I live in Edmonds with my beautiful and supportive wife Renee, twin sons Stone and Ty and our dog Rusty.
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Teresa Wippel
It's no surprise that the "Sustainable buzz, no bull" theme for Green Buzz PR was my idea. I grew up in Ellensburg, Wash. - home to the Ellensburg Rodeo - and the whole cowboy culture has always been part of my life - no matter how much I've tried to escape it. In high school, one of my best friends was a cowgirl, and I even wrote her campaign speech to become Rodeo Queen. Today, I write speeches for company executives. Go figure.
Following graduation, I quickly fled the cow-town culture for urban life, attending Seattle University and earning a journalism degree. After seven years as a newspaper and wire service reporter, I became a writer/editor/media relations specialist at the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (now King County Metro). It gave me a solid education in why environmental protection matters, and I loved showing people how their everyday actions- from taking the bus to using natural household cleaners - really made a difference to our air and water quality.
Having children made me even more passionate about sustainability. Like most parents, I realized what a huge responsibility I had to provide them with a healthy environment. When one of my kids developed a severe skin rash, I began exploring vegetarian cooking and buying organically grown fruits and vegetables. It became clear that sustainability applied not only to our external environment but also to what we put into our bodies. My increasing awareness of health issues meshed nicely with new career experiences, when I was asked to provide public relations and public affairs counsel for health care providers, patients and educators.
Parenthood also brought home both the environmental and practical nature of self-employment and telecommuting: I could work for myself, avoid rush-hour traffic and still have time for classroom volunteer work and after-school sporting events. As luck would have it, one of my first clients was Seattle Internet start-up Go2Net, which hired me to write and edit content for the fledging company's network of Web sites. That gave me the experience and confidence to write about - as well as use - technology, and led me to work with many other Puget Sound area tech companies.
It was probably just a matter of time before I met David, a fellow PR veteran and believer in the power of environmental protection and awareness. I am excited about the strengths that each of us brings to our business partnership.
Like David and his family, I also live in Edmonds (a beautiful small city north of Seattle, on the shores of Puget Sound), along with my husband Matt Waldron, my teen-age children Amanda and Ian, and our Yellow lab, Jake.
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