Christopher Laird Simmons is a veteran author and journalist, musician, photographer, marketing guru and public relations (PR) expert, multimedia artist, and entrepreneur with over 25 years experience in multiple creative disciplines. He has written for over a dozen national magazines, including Micro Publishing News, Digital Imaging, Computer Player, the Graphic Artist Guild newspaper, and CrossMedia magazines. His first sale to a national magazine was for Polyphony (now Electronic Musician) in 1984, but his first published works were in various sci-fi fanzines in 1978 (at age 16). He is the author of FRACTOPIA (Neotrope Press, ISBN: 978-0-9710555-0-6). Chris has been widely interviewed by magazines like Entrepreneur, PC World, Chicago Sun Times, Medical Office Front Desk Pro, and Produce Merchandising on topics related to ebooks, Linux Web hosting, music social networking, customer retention, Internet marketing, SEO/SEM, and public relations. (Photo circa 1995.)

Christopher composed his first press release in 1981 for a self-published work, which led to a quarter-page in Playboy magazine's June 1982 "Potpourri" section; this later led to PR work for California entertainment and start-up companies, as an extension of his graphic design, copy-writing, and photography freelance work, and the launch of Neotrope in 1983 (the company launched as Mindset, and later became Neotrope). He is a current member of the Public Relations Society of America.

Chris has appeared on radio programs like JackStreet Live and Publishing Basics Radio, both on the topics of public relations and news dissemination; and is a quoted expert in major industry reports like the TrendWatch report on PDF technologies; and is one of the succcessful entrepreneurs quoted in the book Career and Corporate Cool (Wiley, ISBN: 978-0470120347) by Rachel C. Weingarten. He has won numerous industry awards including an ARPL Design Award from Apple Computer, Inc., two Harvey Measurement Awards, and various design and photography awards. He has served as a public relations representative for numerous public and private companies with extensive experience in placing news stories in the media since 1981. He served for three years on the judging panel for the "Excellence in Technology Journalism" awards, created by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). He has been on the launch team for numerous successful companies, including MacMall®, and FindWhat.com (now part of Miva).

As a musician he played in various original bands in the '80s, released numerous albums, and composed theme music for two cable TV series; and is a member of ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). One of his albums ("Beserker") can be found on iTunes, CDBaby, Napster, etc. As a digital artist he has created covers for more than two dozen national magazine covers, and his art has appeared in major installations (1997 Bytes of Art Project, San Francisco), and was used for the cover of the 1997 Science and Technology Course Catalog for the California State University Long Beach (CSULB).

In addition to managing the day-to-day operations of Neotrope/Send2Press, and developing new business, Chris is directly involved in the management of all client projects.

» Keep up with Chris at ChristopherSimmons.com

Liisa joined the Send2Press team in January 2006, and serves as the lead press release writer and editor at Send2Press. Liisa (yes, spelled correctly!) writes for several national and regional magazines; daily and weekly newspapers; and business-to-business newsletters. Before joining Neotrope's Send2Press Newswire service, she worked as an editor for a national medical publishing company where she managed a team of writers and did market research for new launches. Liisa also worked in the catering business for several years, and as a result, specializes in writing about the food and beverage business and has two monthly columns that feature chefs and wine experts. (Photo circa 2005.)

Liisa received her Masters in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research in New York City and is currently a Board V.P. of the Public Relations Association of Western North Carolina. She resides in the beautiful town of Asheville, N.C., in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains; she lives there with her husband, Bryan and Black lab, Annie

Author Carly Zander has written for numerous online and print publications including CrossMedia and Search Engine Intelligence, and in the music business doing interviews and content management for outfits like Neotrope® Records. She resides in Northern California and collects toy robots, and has often been seen wearing oversized ear-rings made from recycled electronics, and making her hair stand upright for dramatic effect.

She is a full-time online content manager for Send2Press Newswire (including our Facebook Send2Press news page, and Neotrope company news page), and also manages content for Advertising Industry Newswire™.

Debra assists Carly Z. with updating various back-end information for the Send2Press Newswire feeds, CMS, and syndication elements that drive our content into various partner and aggregation systems. She also covers for Carly when CZ is offline. Debra has been with Send2Press for a couple of years now as a "part-timer." She is planning to work on a book about a topic she won't divulge. She resides in Southern California with her family.

Dr. Jerry Laird Simmons was a best-selling author and highly regarded professor for more than 40 years, before his passing on April 1, 2003. He authored and co-authored a wide variety of books (eleven to be exact) on topics related to the social movements and drug culture of the late '60s (It's Happening), sociology and statistics in the '70s (Identities and Interactions) and '80s (Social Research: The Craft of Finding Out), senior crime and child safety during the early '90s (67 Ways to Protect Seniors from Crime), and the new age movement of the '90s (The Emerging New Age). His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and have been Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections. (Photo circa 1990.)

His many successes helped inspire his son, Christopher, to become a writer and budding journalist as a teenager in the 1970s.

As a journalist Dr. Simmons wrote for more than 100 magazines during his career including Grit, Modern Maturity, American Health, Unity, Child, and Parent's Journal; and he had been widely interviewed on TV news, talk shows, radio, and in print. As a professor he taught at the University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL); the University of California, Davis; and the University of California, Santa Barbara. As a follower of "guerilla marketing" his first successful press release was in 1969 which led to his self-publishied book It's Happening being featured in the 1970 "Man of the Year" issue of TIME magazine, as well as being picked up by a major publisher. He had co-authored several college textbooks, and published numerous scholarly articles for academia.

Throughout his career he proved to be a gifted promoter and was a popular public speaker. His contributions to the company included both mentoring, and financial involvement. During the spin-off of Send2Press from Neotrope in 2000, he worked directly with many of our first clients until he fell ill in early 2003. He will always be remembered and missed.

The Neotrope® News Network is a publishing network comprising both industry specific and local/state based online news portals and electronic magazines. As of Jan. 1, 2010, the network generates more than 10 million page views per month.

Important Note: you cannot reach any of the following people from our main phone number or e-mail as they do not work "on-site."