Charlotte Novom, President

Charlotte has been a leader in the travel and hotel industry for over 25 years. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Stanford University and was a fellow at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service. Ms. Novom has held key-marketing positions at Universal Studios International Film Division, the Olson-Travelworld Organization, Century Plaza Hotel & Towers, The Plaza Hotel in New York, Beverly Hills Visitors Bureau, and The Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel prior to launching her firm in 1993. Additionally, Ms. Novom has developed an extensive international background. Having lived in both Asia and Europe, Novom applied her multilingual talents to acquire valuable contacts and first hand knowledge of international markets.

Earlier in her travel career, Novom developed the first incentive company for French corporate groups visiting the United States. She also co-founded the Travel and Tourism Marketing Association (TTMA). Her background in tourism, destination marketing, hotel and resort sales, public relations, and marketing provides her clients with in-depth experience and extraordinary ability to serve them.

In 1998, Novom partnered with Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown and Russell (YPB&R), the nation’s leading leisure and travel marketing firm, to expand the breadth of services to her agency’s clients. YPBR/Novom is the west coast office of Orlando based YPBR.

Jeani Lund, Strategic Partnerships

Jeani Lund’s impressive thirty-year career in marketing and sales in the hospitality industry includes extensive experience in the development of revenue producing strategies and programs. She also has both offshore and mainland marketing and on-property sales experience, with a fine collection of hotel chain, independent and resort companies.

Previously, Lund served as Corporate Director of Marketing for Merv Griffin Hotels in Beverly Hills. She held the position of Director of Marketing at the Kapalua Bay Hotel & Villas, located on the island of Maui, the position of Director of Marketing at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, as well as the Director of Sales and Marketing with the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco. She also received an appointment to the California Commission of Travel and Tourism by the Governor of California and served on the Commission for three years.

Lund serves the agency from her New York offices.

Quinn Doan, Senior Account Director

Quinn joined our team in the New Year. We selected Quinn, based upon her strong love of travel and her high profile media relations background. She has a 10-year history of writing, pitching, and placing features for clients as diverse as Cheryl Tiegs, the supermodel, to Sebastian International, Absolut Vodka, Von Dutch, Justin Boots, Red Bull, American Express, Joe's Jeans, Jimmy Choo, Donna Karan, and Red Carnation Hotels. Prior to her public relations career, she was marketing director for a travel book publishing company and marketing coordinator for the House of Blues. Quinn was born in Vietnam, was educated in California, and travels frequently to Italy. She is also a freelance writer for Flavorpill.com and other travel and lifestyle outlets.

Emily Peterson, Senior Account Executive

Emily skillfully manages key accounts for the agency, developing creative pitches and focusing on media relations and spa properties. Prior to joining Novom Marketing, Peterson was an Account Coordinator at Berkman Communications in San Diego and was also partner to the Promotions Director at Jefferson Pilot Communications-- a company specializing in radio promotions. An enthusiastic traveler, Peterson has studied abroad at Griffith University in Australia and has also traveled to Europe and most regions of North America. Peterson holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder in Communications.

Georgiana Francisco Senior Publicist – Media Relations Specialist

Georgiana Francisco has over 25 years of public relations and marketing experience and has provided counsel for some of the leading consumer product companies in the world, including Best Foods, Paramount Communications, the Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Westin and Sheraton hotel corporations (including The Pierre and The Plaza hotel in New York and London's Inn on the Park), Miss Universe, Inc., and the State of Pennsylvania. Known and respected by journalists at home and abroad, she has designed award-winning PR strategies for the famous Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Georgiana was Vice President of Public Relations at Gillespie, a $294M Princeton, NJ-based marketing firm. She also served two years at the White House as speechwriter to President Jimmy Carter.

Holly Barnhill, Senior Associate

Holly Barnhill serves as a marketing and communications specialist and has extensive experience in working for a diverse body of clients including upscale hotel and retail establishments as well as entertainment industry clients. She directed all public, media, and community relations for The Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, a historic Four-Star, 700-room property during which time she was awarded the HSMAI Award for publicity. She also has worked for the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau developing media resource material and press releases in 1996 and 2003. Her retail experience includes marketing and public relations representation from 1997-1999 for 2 Rodeo in Beverly Hills.

Holly Barnhill holds a B.A. in Chinese from the University of California at Los Angeles, where she also minored in Journalism. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish

Susan Bejeckian, Senior Publicist

Susan Bejeckian serves as Senior Publicist, specializes in media relations with an emphasis in creative pitch development and press trip planning. Her career spans a period of over 15 years.

Prior to her agency career, Bejeckian had served as the Director of Public Relations for a number of California luxury hotels including Loews Santa Monica Beach, Checkers, & the Intercontinental Los Angeles.

Bejeckian's prestigious background also includes providing high profile media relations for the destination of Fiji, The Alisal Guest Ranch & Golf Resort, the Hyatt Regency Maui, the Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, & Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau. Bejeckian is an honors graduate in journalism from the California Polytechnic University at Pomona, California

Czarin Chan, Assistant Marketing Executive

Czarin, a graduate from University of Washington in Communications and Japanese, manages agency resources, coordinates client and agency-initiated press events, assists with media outreach and archiving, press kit development and journalist itineraries. In addition to agency marketing projects she specializes in coordinating media tours. Prior to joining the Novom team she was an Account Coordinator for Porter Novelli. Czarin grew up in the hospitality industry (her father has been an executive for 26 years in Starwood Hotels), and incorporates her travel expertise and enthusiasm for public relations into her responsibilities at Novom. She has lived in Hong Kong, the islands of Hawaii, San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA. Czarin is trilingual, speaking English, Cantonese and Japanese.

Maya Sobolev, Assistant Account Executive

Maya joined Novom Marketing this year after working at leading public relations firms, Ruder Finn and Golin Harris. There, she worked on the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, The Orange County Performing Arts Center's Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. An excellent wordsmith, her multilingual background (French, Russian) and interest in the arts provide clients with new perspectives about culture and tourism. A graduate in Public Relations from Quinnipiac University, School of Communications, with minors in International Business and French, Maya was educated in Boston and was born in St. Petersberg, Russia.