Ris Cowan is President of Arista PR Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia and has nearly 20 years of experience managing technology, business-to-business, healthcare, real estate, travel, utility and consumer public relations clients. Ris provides the senior level strategy for all of the agency's clients and oversees all aspects of the company's development.

He has an extensive background in media relations, industry analyst relations, marketing and corporate communications, having worked for both the corporate sector and agency arena. Ris' expertise covers such areas as media relations, technology public relations, community affairs, economic development and consumer product marketing.

Prior to founding Arista PR Inc., Ris was managing director for the Atlanta office of Weber Shandwick, the world's largest PR firm. At Weber Shandwick he oversaw successful PR programs for such clients as Coca-Cola, Cryovac, Sealed Air Corp., Quikrete, SRIXON Sports USA, ITC^Deltacom, and Indus International. He has also been in executive positions at other global agencies including GCI Group and Hill & Knowlton and internally at Nortel Networks as Director of Media and Analyst Relations.

Elizabeth Baggett comes to Arista PR after spending time in both the Atlanta public relations industry and the Washington, DC political arena. As communications director for Century Strategies, an Atlanta- and Washington, DC-based political consulting firm, Elizabeth served as press secretary to Ralph Reed, company principal and Southeast Regional Chairman of the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign. In addition, Elizabeth handled media relations strategy and managed several grassroots campaigns for Century's Fortune 500 clients.

Prior to her time at Century, Elizabeth handled media relations for several non-profit and political clients at the Washington, DC public relations firm, Creative Response Concepts. While in DC, Elizabeth also spent time on Capitol Hill as the Legislative Correspondent to Congressman John Peterson, of Pennsylvania.

Before she moved to DC, Elizabeth worked at the Atlanta office of GCI Group Public Relations, in the communications office of Georgia's popular HOPE Scholarship program, and interned at the Georgia State Capitol for then-Governor Zell Miller's press secretary. Elizabeth is a graduate of the University of Georgia.

Ris Cowan President