MANILA, Philippines - In the world of PR and media relations, Carissa Villacorta is carving out a name for herself.
Prior to joining Ogilvy PR Manila in May 2013, Carissa founded and ran her own PR firm, CVPR, based out of New York City since 2007. She has worked as PR consultant for New York-based businesswoman and philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis for the past eight years, and has organized and publicized Mrs. Lewis’ events in the Hamptons, Lincoln Center and the Harvard Club in New York.
Carissa is also consultant to the Philippine Development (PhilDev) Foundation. She helped publicize the story of its chair, Silicon Valley visionary Dado Banatao, who was responsible for “consumerizing†the GPS (Global Positioning System), and innovating computer chip sets that make up about 30 percent of every computer in the world today. The events that Carissa publicized in New York has attracted attendance and coverage from the likes of Bill Cunningham of the New York Times, NY1, Bloomberg, etc.
An Ateneo Business Management graduate, Carissa is the author of Surreality, a collection of essays about life in New York from the perspective of a young Filipina publicist. She is the only Filipino author to have had a book launched (with autograph-signing) at a Borders bookstore in 2006.
Carissa moved to New York in 2002 when she began her six-year stint in the cultural and community relations section of the Philippine Consulate General in New York. She’s now back in Manila after 11 years of working, living and writing in NYC.