Wagstaff Media and Marketing announced the promotions of four key team members, adding to the company’s executive leadership team as the agency continues to grow to meet PR and Marketing opportunities in the travel, culinary, wines and spirits, airlines, cruise lines, and lifestyle spaces.
The agency, which focuses on travel and hospitality marketing, announced the promotion of Ernst Flach to Managing Director, Destination Marketing & Representation; Jessica Levine to Director, East Coast, Europe and Caribbean; Shannon Crosby to Director, Destination Marketing & Representation, and Lauren Green to Director, West Coast, Hawaii, and Mexico.
“Wagstaff has seen record business growth in the past year and our team has grown along with us,” reports Wagstaff’s President Mary Wagstaff. We see an opportunity to continue to impact the Travel and Hospitality industries and are thrilled to continue to invest in our talent at the agency to help us continue to create resonant marketing programs and to keep pace with our clients’ ambitions during this time of growth and change.”
Ernst Flach’s promotion to Managing Director is the next move for the international travel marketing pro. Since joining Wagstaff in 2015, Ernst, who is based in Vancouver, has been instrumental in growing Wagstaff’s travel and tourism representation department, supporting clients – including the South Australian Tourism Commission and Business Iceland – in reaching customers across the US and Canadian markets through integrated programs across consumer, travel trade and media relations channels. Prior to joining Wagstaff, Ernst spent 10 years at The Canadian Tourism Commission (now Destination Canada), where his roles included leading global marketing and 2010 Winter Olympic initiatives, as well as developing US and Mexico programs that drove increased visitation. Ernst holds an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business.
Jessica Levine recently relocated to Nashville TN, after working at Wagstaff’s Chicago office since 2016. With a BA from the University of Wisconsin and a love for travel and culinary, Jess is a proven media relations expert, and has led PR campaigns for marquee accounts including Business Iceland, Andaz Scottsdale, and Rosewood Baha Mar, and most recently has lent her experience and passion to Wagstaff’s media relations and influencer engagement work for the state of Western Australia.
Shannon Crosby, an LA native, received her BA in Journalism with an emphasis in Public Relations from California State University, Northridge. Once out of school, she interned at Wagstaff and destination representation company, MMGY Myriad, where she had the opportunity to get her feet wet working on destinations including Tourism Fiji, Kenya Tourism Board and Tourism Northern Territory, Australia. Shannon joined Wagstaff in 2017 and brings more than six years of experience to her work on destination and resort clients including, Visit Carlsbad, the Italian National Tourist Board and Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge.
Lauren Green is a born and raised Angeleno with more than eight years of luxury hospitality PR and marketing experience. In addition to being an avid traveler, Lauren lived in Tel Aviv, Israel for 4 years where she worked in the marketing department for InterContinental Tel Aviv. Since returning to Los Angeles, Lauren was the on-property PR and Marketing lead for the Beverly Hilton Hotel and then worked at sbe, an entertainment and hospitality company, where she launched four digital restaurant brands with more than 150 ghost kitchens nationwide. At Wagstaff, Lauren leads the charge on hotel accounts including Viceroy Santa Monica, SLS Baha Mar, and the Ritz Carlton Los Angeles.
“I’m inspired by our clients and my colleagues every day and I look forward to continuing to find new ways to support the industries we love and providing new growth opportunities for the entire Wagstaff team,” says Mary Wagstaff.
About Wagstaff Media & Marketing
Since Mary Wagstaff founded the company in 1999, Wagstaff has grown from a humble staff of one to an international full-service agency with more than 65 account executives in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Vancouver, Canada. Wagstaff is dedicated to supporting clients in all verticals of the hospitality world, including travel, hospitality lifestyle, and culinary products, personalities, events and festivals, hotels, airlines, as well as distinctive wine and spirits brands—creating innovative marketing strategies that build brand awareness, drive business, and secure results that matter. Wagstaff was included in Forbes’ inaugural list of America’s Best PR Firms and Mary Wagstaff was recently honored by Los Angeles Business Journal’s Women’s Leadership Awards.
