Colette has over 16 years of public relations experience in both agency and corporate environments in a number of different sectors, across a range of industries, including digital entertainment and media, telecommunications, managed service providers, price optimization and demand management, business process management, product lifecycle management and robotics, as well as mobile entertainment and services. In addition, Colette has specific expertise counseling European venture capital firms, global media organizations, and biotechnology companies.

Before establishing Ballou Public Relations, Colette was a vice president at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide’s Enterprise Software and Service group in both the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices, where she developed public relations strategies and led teams in the execution of domestic and international public relations programs.

Colette is an active part of the European start-up community:  she is a speaker and moderator at industry events including Techcrunch, Microsoft/General Electric Software Academy and the Plugg conference in Brussels.  Colette is also a mentor and judge for start-up organizations ranging from Seedcamp and the GuideWire Group’s Innovate! Europe conference to the Sun Start-Up Academy.

Colette has a master’s degree in Ethics/Philosophy from Union Theological Seminary, where she wrote her thesis, Ethics in Public Relations.  She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.