Hospitality, hotel and restaurant marketing, branding and public relations

At Andrew Freeman & Co., a boutique full service consulting agency specializing in hospitality and restaurant clients, we believe that "life's a show - everyday we're on stage" and the rave reviews come from well-written scripts, clear direction and well-rehearsed players. As your cast and crew, we provide just this for our clients. We know how to heighten the image of the products and services that you offer, and increase the value of your business by developing and implementing innovative marketing and public relations concepts.

Kechia C. Ley – Vice President

While other children dreamed about their weddings, Kechia was dreaming about how to cater them. Flash forward - to pursue a career in hospitality, Kechia worked in various restaurants and a bakery to finance her education at San Francisco State University, where she earned her B.A. in Business Marketing. After graduating, she landed a job at the prestigious Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, where for four years she honed her skills in restaurant and hospitality marketing. Kechia coordinated numerous successful projects ranging from new restaurant openings to Kimpton's signature hotel wine hour program.

Prior to joining Andrew Freeman & Co., Kechia was Marketing Manager at Siemer & Hand Travel, where she indulged in travel by writing about far away places. She also managed the creative process and production of marketing collateral for travel partners such as Harvard Alumni, Brown University, and the Commonwealth Club.

However, before Kechia could venture far in the field of travel, she realized that her true calling was in hospitality and restaurants. She was thrilled to join Andrew Freeman & Co., where she is responsible for the marketing and promotional activities of the company and its select clients.

Kechia also gives back to her community through her charitable efforts as a Management Board Member for the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation. In her spare time, she enjoys dining out, planning her future epicurean world tour, and reading in the park on those rare sunny San Francisco days. She hopes to one day help cater someone's wedding, preferably not her own.

"Food is the great equalizer that brings people together."
-Kechia Ley

p. 415.781.5202
e. kechia@afandco.com

Marla McLaughlin - Senior Account Manager, Public Relations

Marla's first encounter with the PR industry was as the house manager of a French bistro in her native Seattle. Being the go between for the restaurant owner and contracted publicist, she watched the cogs of the PR machine at work. The immediate and tangible resulting boost in covers left an indelible impression on her.

After graduating from Western Washington University with a degree in English Literature, she gave in to the lure of the unexplored and spent the next several years indulging her wanderlust, traveling in South America, Western Europe, Asia and spending nine months living in Dublin, pouring Guinness in a local pub.

Upon her return, Marla decided to transform her fascination with PR into a profession. Always ready for a challenge and knowing that it was the best place to launch her career, she moved to New York for a position with Lou Hammond & Associates. Working in the travel and hospitality division, an industry close to her heart, her accounts included The Waldorf-Astoria, Mayflower Inn and various tourism boards including Providence and Sonoma County. In addition to managing PR campaigns and executing strategies as the prime client contact, Marla also arranged press trips and coordinated media events and tours in such major markets as Toronto and Washington, DC.

To this day, one of her most cherished memories as a publicist was when she first placed in The New York Times. She has since garnered client covers in many major publications including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Travel + Leisure and Town & Country as well as broadcast outlets including Martha Stewart Living Radio, the Early Show and CW11. Marla, who is forcibly results driven, loves nothing better than a happy client and still derives the greatest pleasure from the impressive and immediate results of a successful campaign.

Marla's return to the West Coast was expedited by the opportunity to join forces with the dynamic team at Andrew Freeman & Co. As part of her role, she brings a background driving national campaigns paired with a love and commitment to exploring all of the colorful fabric of the Bay Area.

Liz Medley – Senior Account Manager, Marketing

Choosing this profession was no surprise to those who are close to Liz. Her father spent his career in marketing and she was told at a young age that it ran in her blood. As her mother always told her, 'this business is perfect for you since you're always in everyone else's."

Three days after Liz graduated from Sonoma State University, she started work at San Francisco magazine in the marketing department. Dedicating almost five years to strategic marketing and events including Best of the Bay Area and FallFest, Liz decided she needed to see the world and took off to travel Western Europe solo. After returning to the West Coast she joined the Andrew Freeman & Co. marketing team as a Senior Account Manager. Utilizing her BA in Communications with an emphasis on public relations and background in marketing, Liz has thoroughly enjoyed working with all of our restaurant and hotel clients.

You can always see Liz hanging out with friends. But, never at the same place twice. If you're in need of big words, useless facts, or a good laugh, find Liz she has all three available at all times.

Sasha Bernstein – Senior Account Manager, SF Chefs.Food.Wine

Sasha had a clear passion for food and events as early as her New York elementary school days when she turned her salami sandwiches into bite-sized hors d'oeuvres for everyone at her lunch table. Bringing that devotion to hospitality with her, Sasha moved to California in 2004 to run celebrity events for Esquire's designer-donned ultimate bachelor pad HOUSE project. For the following year she ate, wrote, cooked, sipped and party-planned her way through Los Angeles.

By 2005, presented with an opportunity to assist Iron Chef Cat Cora, Sasha relocated to San Francisco and embarked upon a two-year irreplaceable adventure of public relations, cookbook-developing, recipe-testing, traveling, scheduling, concept-building, non-profit-coordinating, and brand-managing for the Food Network chef. Armed with the diverse range and skills that this experience afforded her, the young and hungry Sasha decided to delve deeper into the food world by way of media and public relations. She took a position writing about food for 7x7 in San Francisco, all the while maintaining at least one finger in the bustling hands-on restaurant world, both in the kitchen and on the floor.

Since joining Andrew Freeman & Co. in June of 2008, Sasha has been involved with numerous accounts, both local and national, and has focused on public relations and program developing for restaurants and food and wine events. As a passionate and dedicated member of her team, Sasha is committed to the success of her clients and that of Andrew Freeman & Co.

Ellen Kaye – Account Director, New York

Combining her experience and passion, Ellen Kaye brings an amazing wealth of restaurant and hospitality knowledge to the table at Andrew Freeman & Co. When it comes to managing client and guest expectations, exceeding service demands and working with employees – Ellen is a true professional who knows how to make things happen.
Ellen's experience comes from a thirty-plus year career working in the finest restaurants in New York City. Eleven of the years were spent at the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group (SWRG)–where Ellen ran the Special Events Department. Over the course of her time there, she was on the opening teams of several of their restaurants and rose to the position of National Events Director. In this role, she sold, organized, directed, and ran events at SWRG's most popular New York City restaurants including Park Avenue Café, Maloney & Porcelli, Quality Meats, Manhattan Ocean Club, Cite, One CPS in the Plaza Hotel, and Smith & Wollensky NYC. She also had the responsibility of managing the event teams at the group's restaurants across the country.

How It All Happened
Ellen grew up in the world of The Russian Tea Room, which her parents owned for more than 50 years. Working for other restaurateurs, including her toughest critics, has given Ellen the opportunity to experience different business models and learn firsthand what works and what doesn't.
As a young woman working her way through the restaurant business, she was given the chance to apprentice at The 21 Club. Her career progressed and she held managerial positions at successful New York spots such as Word of Mouth, Brighton Grill and Union Square Café. While at Union Square Café, her mother and restaurant legend, Faith Stewart-Gordon offered Ellen a once in a life time opportunity to be trained thoroughly in back–of–the–house operations at the Russian Team Room while simultaneously studying at The French Culinary Institute. She graduated from the prestigious program in 1989.

p. 646.584.2387 or 415.781.5700

THE TEAM