Richard Rojo will be assuming the role of Interim Marketing Director through May 31, during Cherie Colin’s maternity leave.
Richard has more than 20 years of experience in university, nonprofit and corporate communications. He has expertise in strategic messaging and marketing, crisis and issue management, electronic marketing and arts marketing.
From 2008 to 2015, Rojo led the Office of Communications at University of the Pacific, a nationally ranked private university with campuses in Stockton, Sacramento and San Francisco, California. He oversaw media relations, printed publications, event promotion, internal communications, the university website and executive communications.
Rojo began his career in media relations and marketing at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, working with prominent art critics and other media from around the world. He was a member of the team that promoted a blockbuster Henri Matisse retrospective in 1992.
He later managed national advertising for the philanthropic program of Phillip Morris Companies, Inc., overseeing a multimillion-dollar account, where he developed expertise in strategic nonprofit messaging and consumer research. Rojo worked with dozens of nonprofit organizations across the country to identify strategic messages and develop effective advertising.
He moved to Northern California in 1998 to help plan and launch Turtle Bay Exploration Park — a 300-acre wildlife park and regional museum. Its centerpiece, the ultramodern glass Sundial Bridge, has become a Northern California landmark. Rojo was responsible for the naming, branding and wayfinding for the project.
He later joined the University of California, Davis, where he led development of branding, market positioning and sales strategy for the new Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. He was responsible for $3 million in annual ticket sales and was one of the driving forces behind a landmark study of arts audiences and what motivates attendance at live performances. He and his team were instrumental in developing new techniques for web- and email-based arts marketing.
Rojo has conducted workshops on social media and nonprofit marketing for the Irvine Foundation, the Western Arts Alliance and other organizations. He holds a B.A. in architectural history and theory from Princeton University.
Article by Cherie Colin
