TWST: Kindly give us a brief history of your company and an overview of your expertise.

Ms. Brogan: Our company was founded in 1982 and its original focus was on international trade. But when I took over the company in 1989, we began to focus much more on social marketing, public involvement, and research. Our expertise includes supplying the tools of research, public involvement, marketing, and public relations to help create a better civic, social, and natural environment. We work for government agencies, private developers, healthcare organizations, organic food suppliers, non-profits, and sustainability-related businesses. We have offices in Seattle and Washington DC.

TWST: So, your business does not involve that much of consumer products?

Ms. Brogan: We do consumer products as well as government programs that try to change behavior. Our consumer products are related to sustainability and community and environmental enhancement.

TWST: So, they are mostly all socially related?

Ms. Brogan: Yes. For example, some of our projects include encouraging people to buy frontloading washing machines, which save water and energy, and also working to get people to change behavior such as minimizing the use of products that contain mercury, like thermometers or fluorescent light bulbs, those sorts of things.

TWST: Give us some examples of the companies that you do work for.

Ms. Brogan: Some examples of companies that we work for include Children's Hospital, where we are helping them come up with better ways of reaching out to communities of color and non-English speaking communities. We are working for the Environmental Protection Agency, where we have programs like SunWise, which is trying to reduce exposure to the sun in children. We also handle branding and public relations for Energy Star, which aims to encourage the purchase of energy-efficient products. Also at EPA we have a program called Best Workplaces for Commuters, a nationwide program that focuses on the benefits employers give their employees that can lead toward reduction in traffic congestion and air pollution. We are also doing a lot of work in healthcare around issues like lower-risk weight loss surgery and trying to encourage people to look at some less obtrusive ways to lose weight for healthcare purposes. We are currently working with the state Department of Health on an anti-tobacco campaign.

TWST: As far as public affairs and policy is concerned, do some of your commercial business as well as the public affairs policy, public involvement business overlap?

Ms. Brogan: Yes. For example, we have done quite a bit of work for Vulcan, Inc., where they have been redeveloping the South Lake Union area here in Seattle. And in that case, our work included assisting them with their strategic planning as well as in reaching out to the community to get the community involved in the planning process.

TWST: From a public affairs and policy point of view, what are some of the other projects that you have worked on?

Ms. Brogan: From the public affairs and policy point of view, a project that we have been working on for several years is the I-405 corridor program, which is a heavily traveled, 13 mile stretch of freeway in the Seattle area. We have been working with all of the jurisdictions along the corridor, various proponents of different modes of transportation, and various resource and regulatory agencies to develop a master plan for that corridor.

TWST: So, generally, would you say the major source of your revenue depends on government spending?

Ms. Brogan: I would say that government is maybe 65% to 70% of our business, but we also are doing an increasing amount of private sector business.

TWST: How is the environment as you see it from the government funding point of view?

Ms. Brogan: Well, it fluctuates. On the positive side, there is a greater demand among consumers for better environment, better healthcare, better food, more say in government decisions. On the negative side, there is a real issue with decreasing funds availability that is impacted by a number of the valid issues that we have seen in Washington State and in other parts of the country. Initiative 200, passed in Washington in 1998, repealed laws that required businesses to seek after and hire business owned by women and minorities. That action also impacted us, because we fall under that category.

TWST: What are some of the -- do you believe that the trends you are seeing for a clean environment will eventually result in higher funding?

Ms. Brogan: Yes, I do. Because we are seeing increasing impacts of human beings upon the environment and the need is increasing to do something about it - to make our air cleaner, make sure that our water quality is good, and conserve the resources that we have. I don't see that trend reversing in any way, because we are seeing that how we take care of the environment, how we take care of the community, has long-term impacts on individuals and individual health as well as in the health and civic environment communities.

TWST: In spite of the current perception that the administration in Washington is not as environment friendly as the administration that was previous to it.

Ms. Brogan: Yes.

TWST: So, as you look ahead, what are the opportunities that lay ahead for you?

Ms. Brogan: In a way our company is a little different than most communications firms, because we offer a very inter-disciplinary approach. In a way, we are like a combination of a think tank and a communications marketing firm. So, not only do we offer the services in media relations, marketing promotions, research, public involvement, we also add value, because we have people with backgrounds in urban design, transportation systems, planning, and community building. I think that in the future we will see a greater demand for that sort of inter- disciplinary approach, where people in the communications field will be more challenged to deepen their understanding of technical and policy areas and become more integral to the management teams for various projects and organizations.

TWST: Who do you run into as your competition and what you just said earlier, would that be your biggest source of strength -- your strength against when you stack up against your peer group?

Ms. Brogan: I would say that that is what sets us apart from our peer groups. We compete with different types of organizations depending on the nature of the project. What we offer to the technical projects is a real, strong understanding of policy and of communications disciplines as well as very hot communications talent and ability to do messaging. For our marketing related projects, what we can bring is an ability to develop new kinds of program concepts that most other public relations or marketing or public involvement firms cannot.

TWST: What sort of changes do you expect in your market other than the current trends that you're seeing?

Ms. Brogan: The changes that I expect to see are a much greater emphasis on social and responsible corporate behavior in the private sector, so one of our major goals is to expand our presence in the private sector market.

TWST: Being socially responsible in the private sector entails spending from the treasury, increasing corporate spending in that direction?

Ms. Brogan: Yes.

TWST: Do you see the current environment as friendly for that?

Ms. Brogan: Well, it seems that there are even some legislative mandates there that require that. Sarbanes-Oxley, for example, mandates for social responsibility and accountability on the part of corporations. We're also finding that corporations are seeing there are tangible financial benefits to taking on a socially responsible or a privately responsible strategy. I think there is real financial benefit in being able to market the fact that a building or a community that you have developed has environmentally sustainable qualities, both in terms of infrastructure as well as in building. So, we see that the trend is going toward a better stewardship of our environment and our community.

TWST: Are there any current projects of significance that you wish to talk about?

Ms. Brogan: We are working on so many different projects. One project that we are working on is an anti-tobacco project in Washington State. Part of that project is an element that includes both free counseling as well as free anti-smoking patches for young people. We're targeting people in their late teens and 20s to encourage them to quit smoking, and we're doing a lot of community-based marketing and outreach as well as broader media outreach. We just finished doing a long-term master plan, which received an American Planning Association (APA) award, for a property along the waterfront at Port of Bellingham to bring together all the various uses and stakeholders and develop some strategies that include urban design and public/private partnerships.

TWST: Could you share with us the expertise of some of the key members of the management team?

Ms. Brogan: My own expertise is pretty inter-disciplinary, I have an undergraduate degree and some job experience in journalism, but then went onto get a Masters in Communication Theory and Methodology, which is a research degree. I have many years of experience in the public sector as a Chief Land Use Advisor to the county executive and as the Superintendent of Public Transportation Development at Metro here in King County. When I began developing my business concept, I was looking for skilled people who could bring something to the table in terms of providing people in the community with information and tools to better influence their futures and provide decision makers, either in the public or private sector, with information and tools to be more responsive to the community. Our management team includes people with backgrounds in economic development, public administration, urban design, environmental marketing, market transformation, research and media relations.

TWST: Is the company profitable? How have you financed the company thus far?

Ms. Brogan: Yes, we've been very profitable. We look for a significant profit. Every year, we look for around 20% to 25% return for our equity investors.

TWST: Who are the investors in your company?

Ms. Brogan: We grew a lot. When we first started, for the first five out of six years, we were listed as one of the 100 fastest-growing, privately held companies in Washington State.

TWST: Do you divulge your revenue stream?

Ms. Brogan: Occasionally. You asked about our investors. I'm the primary owner of the company, but members of our management team also are investors. I recently opened up ownership to anybody in our company who has been here for more than 18 months.

TWST: How large is the staff at your company?

Ms. Brogan: I have 37 people with offices in Seattle and Washington DC.

TWST: Give us your vision? Where do you see your company two to three years down the road?

Ms. Brogan: This is a very timely question because we just finished having our corporate retreat, and so our vision really is to keep doing what we're doing but to do it in more markets and to expand our private sector market share. So, in addition to our Washington DC office, I am anticipating in the next two to three years opening a California office and we may also be looking at other mergers or acquisitions in that time period.

TWST: In terms of mergers and acquisitions, what would be your top priority?

Ms. Brogan: I am thinking about expanding our skill sets in the area of urban design and development.

TWST: Anything else would wish to add as a summary statement?

Ms. Brogan: I would say that the greatest key to our success is our people and for anyone that we hire at PRR, no matter at what level, I look for three basic qualities. I look for intelligence, I look for humor, and I look for kindness. Because of that we have a really special group of people at PRR who really are very passionate about what we do. In addition to the financial profitability, we also measure our performance against the triple-bottom line of financial performance, community benefits, and environmental benefits.

TWST: Thank you

RITA BROGAN CEO PRR 1109 First Avenue, Suite 300 Seattle, Washington, 98101 (206) 623-0735 (206) 623-0781 - fax www.prrbiz.com

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