Company: Bhava Communications, Emeryville, CA, U.S.A
Company Description: Bhava Communications is a multi-award winning agency, and takes a uniquely holistic approach to business communications that blends new and traditional media and marketing techniques to achieve maximum reach and optimum results for its clients. The company puts the same amount of effort and energy into its client work as it does the environment in which its employees work.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Maverick of the Year

Nomination Title: Amber Winans, Managing Director

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated woman since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words): TEXT REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION

Amber Winans doesn’t just “wear many hats” as Managing Director of Bhava Communications, she makes new hats, hands out hats to her team, and ensures the right “hats” are being made for the future. Some executives manage to compress several months’ worth of accomplishments into a single week—Amber is definitely one of them. Her intense work ethic and infectiously positive attitude help maintain a consistently success-oriented, ambitious, fun work environment. With Amber’s guidance and commitment to scaling the business while putting the agency’s people first, Bhava is well on its way to continue growing rapidly.

Amber pays close attention to cultivating Bhava’s company culture as a steady stream of new employees joins the ranks, keeping the team motivated and grounded through the changes that accompany rapid business growth. Amber’s intentional focus on team dynamics fosters a cohesiveness and camaraderie where employees readily share responsibility for the success of their peers, clients and the agency. Amber helped establish the company’s employee development initiatives, including 1:1 mentoring, customized goal setting and career paths, external classes and conferences and onsite workshops led by employees and industry experts. Several Bhavans report directly to Amber and she also makes time to connect with Bhavans at all levels. She has a particular knack for coaching managers on how to structure and be most effective in their role.

When Bhava outgrew its original 952-square-foot office, Amber managed the 6-month renovation of the nearly 10,000-square-foot office into an environmentally-friendly, ultra-modern workspace…. under budget and ahead of schedule while still leading accounts and managing daily operations. Amber played an essential role in executing the vision for the new headquarters. Bhava’s three-floor building features an open work space with many call rooms, a large gym, yoga studio, fully stocked kitchen and Apple devices everywhere.

In addition to her role in scaling the business and keeping a finger on the pulse of the organization, Amber leads several clients and advises on others. While passionate about team building and operations, she’s a consummate PR pro, and Bhava is fortunate to have such a skilled practitioner immersed in the work that is the cornerstone of the Bhava brand. Amber is continually looking for opportunities to push her clients to be bold and step out of their comfort zone. Recently, Amber guided Qwilt, a provider of online video optimization solutions, to leverage their data around the streaming industry and piggyback Amazon’s upcoming news announcement about Fire TV. The proactive PR paid off and resulted in Amazon putting out a surprise press release about Qwilt’s findings. Within three days of Amazon’s release, Qwilt had over 93 pieces of coverage including mentions in WIRED, USA Today, Fox Business and CBS News. Without Amber’s preemptive strike, Qwilt would have missed an opportunity to gain industry clout that has gone viral.

Amber has contributed to shaping the Bhava brand, which is widely recognized as one of the highest quality B2B PR agencies and considered a “short-list agency” with leading venture capital firms for portfolio investments, including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and RedPoint Ventures.

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Provide a brief biography of the nominated woman (up to 125 words):

Amber Winans is Managing Director of Bhava Communications. One of the agency’s earliest employees, she has been instrumental in helping to grow the firm from a handful of employees and clients to more than 25 employees and millions in annual revenue. She began her career in broadcast journalism and shifted to public relations, working with a wide range of B2B technology companies, from startups to large, public corporations including Quest, Cloudera, Pure Storage, Alteryx, Avere Systems, Qwilt, Gainsight, Atempo, Storactive and VERITAS. She is highly-regarded for building award-winning communications initiatives from the ground up, and her expertise encompasses thought leadership, media and analyst relations, investor relations, customer evangelist programs, media training, internal communications and acquisition communications.

Amber serves on the Widener University Communications Advisory Board.