High-energy PR agency president wins award for her community leadership and work to benefit North County and its economy

By Arthur Lightbourn

Julie Wright Photo/Jon Clark

RSF resident Julie Wright loves frogs.
She has them positioned all over her office.
Not the live, leaping, croaking variety, but little ceramic stationary critters, who keep her calm, cool and collected as she directs the public relations strategies of clients whose collective gross revenues exceed $7 billion and chairs the activities of the San Diego North Economic Development Council.
Wright, 41, has carved an influential niche in North County since moving here with her family from Canada nine years ago, where, incidentally, coastal native peoples revere frogs for their adaptability and as great communicators in the exchange of wisdom, knowledge, and power.
Earlier this month, at the development council’s annual awards luncheon, Wright was named this year’s recipient of the Fran Aleshire Award, Cal State San Marcos’ Leadership North County’s highest honor; The award recognizes Wright for her leadership in North County community issues.
We interviewed Wright, president and founder of (W)right On Communications Inc., a regional multi-service public relations firm, in her Solana Beach offices.
Attractive, tall (5-foot-9) with shoulder-length blonde hair, Wright admits she has been blessed with high energy.
Her clients hail from a broad, diverse range of industries — from the energy, biotech, health and financial industries to manufacturers, restaurants, universities, retailers, hospitality firms, government entities and nonprofits.
One of her newest accounts is The Queen Mary, the retired iconic luxury liner docked in Long Beach as a hospitality tourist venue. She handles The Queen’s media relations.

Wright was born Julie Savage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the eldest of two daughters to a Canadian father and an American mother. She holds dual Canadian/American citizenship. Her dad was an entrepreneur in the mineral exploration investment business.
Drawn to writing and literature, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of British Columbia in 1990 and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Western Ontario in 1992.
Finding herself in the midst of a recession and unable to find work as a print journalist, but being adaptable, she found work in radio as a weekend newscaster and in public relations as an account executive.
“I had my first job in radio as a newscaster for seven months at a station [Mountain FM] that served Whistler, the ski resort in British Columbia,” she said.
On weekdays, she worked at Cormier Communicators, a Vancouver PR firm specializing in public affairs.
“I was so sure I was going to be a journalist, I never took any courses in public relations while studying for my master’s, but it was because of the people I met at Cormier who started to mentor me that I began to see the career path potential in public relations and enjoy it.”
While working at Cormier on the Laidlaw corporation account, she met and, in 1995, married Grant Wright, a young Laidlaw strategic planner and media relations executive.
Also, in 1995, she broadened her experience into the financial area, serving for two years as marketing manager for Westminster Savings in Vancouver before donning her entrepreneurial hat and opening her own PR agency out of her home in 1998.
When her husband joined Sempre Energy in 2000, the Wrights moved to San Diego where Julie continued to nurture her PR agency.
In the aftermath of 9/11, for about six months, when many businesses were plunged into a survival mode, “there was really nothing to do…because the trade shows had been cancelled that we were going to do, so I focused on networking and wanting to do something meaningful because of Sept. 11.
She joined Interfaith Community Services and subsequently organized and chaired the organization’s 2004 gala.
She also studied leadership at Cal State San Marcos and served as vice-chair of the President’s Council at the university; became involved with promoting economic growth in North County’s eight cities and unincorporated areas through the Economic Development Council; and co-founded CanDiego, a networking organization for Canadians and Friends-of-Canadians.
By 2004, (W)right On Communications had grown to such an extent that her husband left his corporate job and joined the agency as CEO and managing partner.
She described the agency’s current billings as “healthy.”
“People are looking at public relations as a cost-effective way to communicate and reach people in this environment…and going well for us because we’re not a huge agency with a lot of overhead. We have an account team of five [plus five support staff] and we have an open position [for an account executive]; and we’re hiring.”
The agency provides a full spectrum of strategic communication services for its clients, including media relations and crisis management, in addition to incorporating into its services “social media,” such as Facebook, UTube, Yelp and Twitter,.
“I’ve had really great successes when I’ve approached social media as a way to build a community around a client’s idea or service. Establishing a linked-in group and a twitter-feed, to me, is building your own direct channel [with] no gatekeeper.”
Through social media, she said, she was able to gain expert status recognition for her client, RidgeviewTel, a creator of wireless broadband networks, resulting in a Wall Street Journal interview, an exclusive feature with USA Today, and an invitation to attend a major policy conference in San Francisco.
For newer and smaller companies with minimum budgets, she said, often the way to go is start with public relations as a way to get the story out there and then sustain it with advertising.
When she is not working or volunteering, you will find her on the soccer fields with her two young sons or hiking with her husband.
How else does she keep in shape?
“Stress,” she laughs, “And staying in motion. There are three flights of stairs here [at her office]. I never take the elevator.”