Michael Vernetti

high-tech | mobile | analysts

Making sense out of esoteric technologies is Mike Vernetti's job. He helps technology companies better communicate their attributes, and then works with media outlets to gain exposure for those attributes.

He came to this calling by way of journalism, covering a variety of beats for dailies in California and Nevada and for the Associated Press in Reno. One of his stops was as political editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he covered virtually every Nevada political figure, including one of the state’s US Senators, Howard Cannon. Cannon ended Mike’s journalism career by bringing him back to Washington, DC, to serve as his press secretary.

Remaining in Washington after Cannon was defeated for re-election, Mike worked for the former Pacific Telesis, for a wireless telecommunications trade association and for Shandwick Public Affairs, now Weber-Shandwick. His foray into technology began with wireless telecom, and he helped launch the nation’s first digital cellular network in the Washington-Baltimore market. Moving back to Northern California brought him in touch with the high-tech hotbed of Silicon Valley and the endless variety of computer-and-Internet-related technologies that were brewing there.

Mike led a technology practice at Blanc & Otus, Hill and Knowlton’s technology subsidiary, and did a stint at Trainer Communications concentrating on technology start-ups. In those positions and with the Placemaking Group, Mike has helped introduce and grow clients such as Internet security firm Sygate Technologies, recently acquired by Symantec; East Bay mobile data provider PocketThis; “virtual” wireless network enabler Visage Mobile; and high-availability software firm Availigent.

In 2002 through 2004, Mike took a sabbatical from technology PR and returned to his roots as a political reporter/press secretary to write about his former boss. His biography on the late Senator Cannon is scheduled for publication in 2007.

Mike’s personal life revolves around his two daughters and their families in the East Bay, and his alma mater, Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. He is willing to explain the meaning of the phrase “Go Gaels” to anyone who cares.

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