Linda F. Marcus, APR
Principal, Astra Communications
Linda Marcus has been working closely with clients and corporate management to develop public relations and marketing communications programs for thirty years. This team approach and a commitment to quality writing and strategic communications activities has contributed to the success of product launches, awareness campaigns, and global public relations and marketing programs.
With society besieged by sound bites at every turn, slogans and hype often drown out more thoughtful exchange. Linda works to produce effective communications that rise above the noise with clarity and precision. She helps organizations speak from a perspective of balance and integrity to build the trust that leads potential customers, journalists and influencers to action.
Linda began working in the high-tech industry a year before the introduction of the IBM personal computer and also has experience in the industrial process and environmental monitoring fields. She has developed marketing communications and public relations programs for corporations, startups, small businesses and industry associations. Her agency background includes account and strategic program development at Manning, Selvage & Lee Public Relations, the fourth largest PR firm in the world; Hi-Tech Public Relations, the largest West Coast technology PR agency before it was purchased by Shandwick PR; and Creamer Dickson Basford/California, which was part of Havas Worldwide.
Her client and corporate experience includes 14 years managing marketing communications for the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) and its global cybersecurity efforts. Other work includes Hitachi Solutions Credeon Cloud Data Protection consumer products, security software at Hughes NetLock, the launch of the industry’s first Web-enabled phone for CIDCO, Xerox Corp. printing and computing divisions, and Peter Norton Computing, now part of Symantec. Her work in the process and environmental monitoring industries includes Research Cottrell’s KVB continuous emissions monitoring systems group and Analect Systems FTIR industrial monitors.
Linda established Astra Communications in 1997, as an independent consultant, and provides both ongoing, long-term strategic marketing communications programs and project services. She specializes in public relations program development, news releases and press material development, media and analysts relations, social media, collateral, and brochures, technical best practices and white paper creation and editing, website content, and newsletters.
Accredited in Public Relations (APR) through the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) since 1986, she also served on the Board of Directors for the PRSA Orange County Chapter for three years. Linda remains active in the business and public relations community and is the co-founder of the local South County PR & Marketing, an ad hoc group with over 200 professional members.