our story

EXPERIENCE

Levee Communications is the partnership of Andy Backover and Charles Nicolas, who have decades of experience leading communications functions for some of the largest and well-known brands in the world.

Iconic brands such as American Airlines, AT&T, Baker Hughes, Burger King Corporation, and PepsiCo.

EXPERTISE

Both have had similar in-house corporate career paths, playing offense and defense in high-profile roles in the volatile world of global strategic corporate communications.

Mergers, restructuring, Chapter 11, labor relations, rebranding, CSR, landmark product launches and crises galore, such as safety, health and environmental incidents, basically sums up their experience – so far.

EFFICIENCY

Having hired and managed dozens of traditional Communications agencies, we understand the budget challenges and complexity of managing your external partners. We want to make it easier on you.

Whether on retainer or by the hour, our rates are very competitive and we work efficiently to understand your needs and give you the results you expect.

MANAGING PARTNERS

Andrew Backover

Andy Backover is well versed in working with Companies as well as Communications Agencies to help them exceed their business objectives with senior-level counsel, on-the-ground execution, project management and team development.

With more than 25 years of experience -- as a journalist for The Denver Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and USA Today, and as a senior communications leader at such global brands as AT&T, American Airlines and Baker Hughes — Andy has a strong track record in leading all phases of strategy and execution for internal and external communications.

His experience encompasses M&A, rebranding, go-to-market strategies, change management, CEO communications and crisis response, spanning industries such as telecom, oil and gas, aviation, healthcare and medical devices.

Andy was global Vice President of Communications for American Airlines during its successful restructuring, Chapter 11 reorganization, rebranding and merger with US Airways. Most recently, he was global Vice President of Communications for Baker Hughes during its attempted merger with Halliburton, subsequent restructuring and eventual combination with GE Oil & Gas.

After a 13-year career as reporter, Andy served as Director, Corporate Media Relations for AT&T Corp. during its transformation and merger with SBC Corp.

Charles Nicolas has 25+ years of Communications experience in domestic and international markets in corporate, strategic and marketing communications while working in Fortune 500 companies such as PepsiCo, Tenet Healthcare and Burger King Corporation.

He provided C-suite clients with Chief Communication Officer capabilities and counsel for any internal and external communications plans. He has a proven track record of success in industries as wide-ranging as technology, CPG, healthcare, apparel, chemicals, coatings, and banking. Highlights include:

CONSUMER: Led PR planning and activation for more than two dozen integrated marketing campaigns tied to brands' largest promotions and product introductions with revenues from start-up to $3B-plus.

HEALTHCARE: Increased focus on proactive media relations to improve reputation, earned media results, and content for digital and social media. In first year, positive earned media increased ten-fold to $80M in ad equivalency.

MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES: Led early adoption and use of digital and social media as part of Public Relations/Communications mix.

Clients have remarked on Charles’ innate ability to quickly and accurately assess a company‘s strategic communication needs and provide counsel to senior executives on action plans for reputation improvement, image repositioning or brand building.

Value Proposition

It starts with the decades of experience of co-founders Charles Nicolas and Andy Backover. However, what makes Levee Communications unique is our operating model that allows us to quickly deploy a team of very highly experienced and capable communications professionals to partner with customers in the most cost-effective manner.

Efficient Model

We strongly believe that, in a communications consulting business, high fixed costs destroy value for the customer and the agency. Levee Communications operates as a virtual agency – with all of the skills, experience and technical capabilities of a much larger agency but with a fraction of the operational costs.

Experienced Pros

Through carefully developed partnerships, we have built a team of experienced pros with decades of diverse expertise. These are colleagues with whom Andy and Charles have worked throughout their careers -- at some of the biggest brands in the world -- who would be senior-level impact players on any communications agency or in-house corporate team.

Ready to Jump In

We have agreements in place with each member of the extended Levee team to ensure consistent, seamless and positive experiences for customers. As a result, we can put together a fit-for-purpose, integrated team ready to hit the ground running.

OUR extended team

COMPANIES: Dr Pepper Snapple Keurig Group & Brinker International

EXPERTISE: Media Relations, Crisis Management, CSR/Sustainability Comms

chris barnes

COMPANIES: American Airlines & Texas Instruments

EXPERTISE: Customer & Internal Comms, Digital/Mobile, Marketing & Brand

linda carlson

COMPANIES: PepsiCo

EXPERTISE: Internal Comms, Culture & Technology

rhonda carlson

COMPANIES: Weber Shandwick, American Airlines, Royal Caribbean & TGI Fridays

EXPERTISE: Media, Crisis, Social Comms

Brian Conway

COMPANIES: Weber Shandwick, American Airlines, Emirates, RItz-Carlton & Toys R Us

EXPERTISE: Corporate, Media & B2C Comms

elizabeth gaerlan

COMPANIES: M Booth, Ketchum, PepsiCo

EXPERTISE: Corporate Reputation, Issues/Crisis, Influencer Relations, Stakeholder Education

aurora m. gonzalez

COMPANIES: Conifer Health Solutions, AT&T, Hill+Knowlton, Perot Systems

EXPERTISE: B2B Corporate, Executive, Employee, Marketing and External Communications, Media Relations, Charitable Giving and CSR Strategy and Management, Social Media Strategy and Management

Sharon l. lakes

COMPANIES: American Airlines, Oracle, Visa & Weber Shandwick

EXPERTISE: Branding, Crisis & Reputation; Corporate Positioning, Marketing

ryan mikolasik

COMPANIES: Verizon, American Airlines & Walmart

EXPERTISE: Internal, Exec & Community Comms, & Media

rhonda rathje

COMPANIES: Koch Industries & Baker Hughes

EXPERTISE: M&A, Financial, Operations & Crisis Comms

katie stavinoha

COMPANIES: MobileStar Network (now T-Mobile Hotspot), Ignite Technologies and PepsiCo/Frito-Lay

EXPERTISE: Influencer / consumer engagement, digital strategy, employee communications / project management

kristin walsh

Companies: USAA, Allstate, HSBC, United Airlines, American Airlines, BNSF Railway

Expertise: Media Relations, Financial Comms, Crisis, M&A, Web & Social Media Strategy and Management, Internal, Customer and Marketing Comms and Labor Relations

MIKE TREVINO