Cunningham Communication

Cunningham Communication, Inc. was a prominent public relations firm in Silicon Valley in the 1980s and 1990s that had many well-known clients in high-tech,^[1][2] including Adobe, Cisco, Motorola, PeopleSoft, Hewlett-Packard, and the IBM Consumer Division.^[3] It was founded by Andy Cunningham in 1985, after she left Regis McKenna.

Cunningham Communication developed the Momentum Management methodology^[4] that was documented in the book Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces by John Volkmann and Ron Ricci.^[5]

In 1999, Cunningham Communication was reorganized into five subsidiaries with their own separate brands - Cunningham Public Relations, the Brand Momentum Group, the Momentum Research Group, Cunningham Ventures, and Fifth Gear.^[6] The firm was acquired in 2000 by Incepta and renamed Citigate Cunningham.^[7] After the dot-com bubble burst, the five companies were brought back together under the Citigate Cunningham brand.^[8] Andrea Cunningham stepped down from her position as CEO in 2003 to form CXO Communication.^[9][10]

Incepta merged with Huntsworth in 2005. In 2009, Huntsworth, merged Citigate Cunningham with Connecting Point Communications.^[11] The remnants of the firm are now part of Grayling Communications.

Recognition

• Ranked 412 in Inc. Magazine's 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in 1991

Notable alumni

• Andy Cunningham, Founder of ZERO1 and currently the Founder and President of Cunningham Collective
• Zach Nelson, President and CEO of NetSuite^[12]
• Ron Ricci, Vice President, Executive and Customer Engagement at Cisco, and noted co-author of The Collaboration Imperative: Executive Strategies for Unlocking Your Organization's True Potential and Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces^[13]
• John Volkmann, former Vice President of Corporate Communications at AMD and co-author of Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces
• Andrew Wittman, Former Chief Marketing Officer of CA Technologies and currently the Chief Marketing Officer of Okta^[14]
• Julie Meyer, American born entrepreneur and inventor
• Nick Sturiale, Managing Partner, Ignition Partners
• Dan Race, Vice President of Corporate Communications, GoDaddy
• Brett Murray, Vice President of Marketing, View, Inc.
• Amanda McPherson, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Developer Programs, The Linux Foundation
• Hadley Wilkins, Head of Marketing, Redpoint Ventures and former Executive Vice President, U.S. Technology Practice at Hill+Knowlton Strategies
• Mary Moslander, President and CEO of LiveHealthier, and former Vice President of Strategy and Product Development for The Washington Post^[15]
• Maxine Friedman, Senior Vice President of Bionic Solution