A Public Relations Crisis: What You and The Board Should Know

Founder, PR Security Service

Dave Oates

Dave Oates is the Founder of PR Security Service and possesses nearly 30 years of strategic public relations experience dealing with a wide array of adverse public events. Starting as a U.S. Navy Public Affairs Officer and later as a Corporate Chief Marketing Officer and Non-Profit President, he excels in expertly addressing a myriad of crises spans non-profit, military, government, corporate, education, charity, and start-up environments. Dave received his MBA from San Diego State University in 2004 and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in 1991.

Partner, Sheppard Mullin

John Tishler

John Tishler is a partner at the global law firm Sheppard Mullin. Mr. Tishler’s practice includes corporate governance, capital markets, corporate finance, business transactions, mergers and acquisitions and technology. Mr. Tishler frequently serves as special counsel for companies experiencing complex corporate governance issues, including NYSE and NASDAQ listed issuers. Boards regularly report the value Mr. Tishler brings via clarity, practicality and ability to navigate uncertainties. Mr. Tishler is a frequent writer and speaker on corporate governance, having addressed the Society of Corporate Governance Professionals, the Association of Corporate Counsel and Accounting Day.  He is a graduate of Cornell University and Yale Law School.

Vice President, Public Affairs, Qualcomm

Christine Trimble

Based in San Diego, Christine Trimble, vice president of Public Affairs for Qualcomm, leads Public Affairs within Qualcomm’s Government Affairs organization. She oversees communications on policy and regulatory matters and guides public affairs strategy for the company. In this role, Ms. Trimble leads Qualcomm’s worldwide policy-related public interaction with lawmakers, think tanks, news media, policy coalitions, and academic institutions while advising Qualcomm’s senior leadership on public interaction related to political, geopolitical, and regulatory matters. Ms. Trimble leads strategies and programs aimed at elevating the company’s profile and reputation as a global technology leader among government officials and legislators at the federal, state and local levels, including education for their constituencies about 5G and Qualcomm’s broader innovation role through the history of wireless communications. After serving as the primary spokeswoman for Qualcomm, Ms. Trimble, a 25-year veteran at Qualcomm, created and has run Qualcomm’s public affairs operations and played a key public affairs role in helping the company navigate the complex legal and business challenges it has faced for the past quarter century.

Ms. Trimble also plays a leading role in Qualcomm’s government and industry partnerships aimed at fostering greater diversity in engineering and other STEM fields, and in particular empowering women to pursue careers in technology and to invent and patent their breakthroughs.

Before joining Qualcomm, Ms. Trimble worked at a public affairs agency providing strategic communications counsel for a variety of clients, including technology companies, economic development organizations, and government agencies.

Ms. Trimble was awarded the Public Relations Society of America’s award for Professional of the Year in 1998 for her crisis communications management. She is also a 2008 recipient of the Tribute to Women in Industry (TWIN) award.

She serves on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and The Old Globe. She previously served on the board of Susan G. Komen San Diego. She was named the 2017 Honorary Survivor of the Race for the Cure.

Ms. Trimble graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She completed an executive course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Executive Chairman, CareAlign.ai; Independent Board Member, WaveForm Diabetes; Independent Board Member, Luminia; Member, Executive Committee of the Board and co-Vice Chair, CONNECT San Diego

Rick Valencia

Rick Valencia is a highly respected entrepreneur, executive, investor, and board member with 30+ years’ experience in creating technology and health technology businesses and has served on numerous public private and no-profit boards. In his most recent operating role Rick was the founder and leader of Qualcomm Life, a digital health pioneer. Qualcomm Life enabled care to be delivered anywhere by connecting medical monitoring and diagnostic devices and securely extracting the data from those devices to provide meaningful insights to patients and their caregivers. In his role at Qualcomm Life, Rick also founded and provided oversight to Qualcomm’s two healthcare venture funds: the $100M Qualcomm Life Fund and the $100M dRx Capital, in partnership with Novartis. Rick’s board experience includes, Executive Chairman at CareAlign.ai, Independent Board Member at WaveForm Diabetes, Independent Board Member at Luminia, Member of Executive Committee of the Board and co-Vice Chair of CONNECT San Diego, former Board Member and Nominating and Governance Chair at Tandem Diabetes Care (TNDM:NASDAQ), former Board Member of the Value in Healthcare Initiative at the World Economic Forum, former Board Member, Global eHealth Initiative Chaired by Archbishop Desmund Tutu, and numerous other non-profit and charitable organizations.