The Team

Blackman • Rakowitz Public Relations co-founder Diane Blackman is a high-powered executive with 20 years of experience in public relations, promotion, consumer marketing and branding. As the president and founder of her own PR agency, D.L. Blackman, & Co. she brings a comprehensive knowledge and expertise that have made her a sought after commodity by a broad spectrum of industry leaders. She consistently outperforms the competition in launching companies, products and brands and often achieves complete saturation.

Blackman's media coups include turning Madame Tussauds wax museum into one of New York's top tourist attractions, introducing Loews Cineplex Entertainment's experimental movie-ticket service Fandango and making it a national sensation and repositioning the educational website Africana.com for a multimillion dollar sale to Time Warner.

Blackman has also worked in a variety of public relations capacities with responsibilities for overall media planning, branding, program and artist promotion, and publicity campaign strategy. As East Coast General Manager for the Los Angeles-based Mahoney Wasserman Communications, she represented clients ranging from the city of Palm Springs and the Hilton Hotel chain to powerful talent agencies, production companies and entertainment figures. She promoted high profile events such as The Who's 25th Anniversary Tour and Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden; represented a host of celebrities, including Keith Richards, U2, Jack Lemmon, Bob Hope and Ellen DeGeneres; and planned and executed numerous television programming campaigns.

Before coming to MWC, Blackman was Vice President of Circus Productions and Tour-Toiseshell Inc., where she was responsible for the national tours of the Moscow Circus and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She previously served as a publicist for Gene Nichols and Associates, spearheading publicity campaigns for Warner Bros. Television, PBS (including Julia Child programs) and Proctor & Gamble Productions’ daytime dramas. Prior to her work in public relations, Blackman was New York regional editor for TV Guide.

Blackman is conversant in French.

Blackman • Rakowitz Public Relations co-founder Cindy Rakowitz is a highly respected, award-winning executive with more than 20 years experience in marketing, communications, public relations, promotions and product development. Working in a variety of industries, including television, radio, magazines, film, packaged goods, sports, hospitality, fashion, music, healthcare and the internet, as well as launching her own firm RNR Public Relations, she boasts a track record of growth and success throughout her career.

Rakowitz may be best known for her tenure as Division President for Playboy Enterprises, where she ran international public relations, marketing and advertising, as well as the modeling agency for over 15 years. She worked on a daily basis with Playboy founder Hugh M. Hefner, heading up a 20-person department located in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and with all outside domestic and worldwide creative agencies reporting to her. Most significantly, she broke new ground work in global brand promotion and partnership in emerging economies.

In addition to her work as a leading communications executive for companies like RKO General (now Gencorp) in New York and WWOR-TV, Rakowitz has been highly successful in planning and executing brand strategies for clients like Patron Tequila. Her campaigns created a high end, newly defined ultra-premium brand and had a significant impact on Patron tequila’s sales, generating an increase of 75 percent.

Rakowitz is also recognized for her expertise in all areas of corporate communications, including crisis management, internal communications, public affairs and investor relations. As a premier media trainer, she has a unique ability to help her clients deal with the press during unanticipated crises. Her high-profile clients include Ruth Pearl, the mother of assassinated Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl, Sony Corporation, McDonald's, Tasker Products and Modavox Inc.

For the past several years, Rakowitz has hosted "Stars of PR," the only live weekly radio program devoted to public relations and marketing, which she created for VoiceAmerica™ Internet Radio. According to PR News, the show "fills a void in the public relations business."

Speaking several languages and proficient in Spanish, French and German, Rakowitz recently completed her second term in Mandarin Chinese at UCLA.