Gary Carr, Owner

Rising Moon specializes in designing and implementing promotional plans, marketing strategies, image control and development, and in getting its clients' names in the media.

Projects range from "Got Milk?" promotions...to editing an award-winning book on business strategies...to writing articles on hotel performance statistics...to publicizing book tours, theatre and music events...to writing reviews of restaurant chairs. Rising Moon is heavily involved in publicity and business communications for the Arts & Entertainment and Art & Design communities.

As much as you'd ever want to know about Gary Carr

Prior to launching Rising Moon, Carr spent over ten years as Director of Communications for PKF Consulting, a national hospitality and real estate consulting firm headquartered in San Francisco. At PKF, he was responsible for all internal and external publications, including annual reports, newsletters, web content, and press releases. He was in charge of media relations and the organization of press conferences, golf tournaments, and trade show appearances.

Earlier positions include co-ownership of McKinnon Carr Diaz & Associates, a film and video production company in Houston, and associate manager of the writing department for National Photographic Laboratories, a Houston-based film production company.

A former university professor, Carr has taught a wide variety of courses in communication theory and media studies. He has published articles and stories in numerous trade and academic journals. His book, The Left Side of Paradise: The Screenwriting of John Howard Lawson, was published by UMI Press.

His films have appeared on PBS and commercial networks. Two of his screenplays were produced as independent features, and several of his business films have won awards, including those from the Information Film Producers of America and the International Association of Business Communicators.

He has written films about offshore oil drilling, heart pacemakers, labor-management issues, cancer research, truck driver safety, the Texas prison system, garbage collection, and art in society.

In San Francisco, he has served for five years on the Board of Directors of Theatre Bay Area, Northern California's largest performing arts service organization. He is a member of the Hong Kong Association of Northern California and the Public Relations Advisory Committee for the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau. He served on the board of the San Francisco Bay Area Publicity Club and edited its newsletter, eFYI.

He holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College, an M.A. in English, with emphasis in Creative Writing, from Ohio University, and a Ph.D. in Radio-TV-Film from The University of Texas.

As a writer in the corporate world, he has long been his firms' and his clients' "go-to guy." He started Rising Moon Marketing & Public Relations because he saw a niche for a company that can solve business problems with creative strategic projects and good writing. He is perhaps one of the few people to appear in both the Wall Street Journal and The Journal of Irreproducible Results.

Gary Carr and his wife, Katherine, live in Clayton, CA. Their two adult children are in Houston and Dallas. Carr's major interests are writing, natural history, live theatre, sketch comedy, and visual arts.