They say that San Francisco is “America’s Favorite City.” Well, in San Francisco, the advertising industry’s “favorite media professional” is Francine Pareles Roberts.
Francine literally hitchhiked her way across America in 1972 to San Francisco after starting her advertising career in New York at Ketchum. “I grew up in the East – graduated from an East Coast college (Russell Sage) – and wanted something new. It was an adventure … one I’ve been living ever since,” she says.
After arriving in town, Francine went to work for Macy’s as a Broadcast Supervisor, later moving back to the agency side at Hoeffer, Dietrick & Brown. She served as Regional EVP of Broadcast at Western International Media (now Initiative) for more than 15 years where she managed the Northwest and Northern California Spot Broadcast negotiating teams. Immediately prior to reconnecting with her many former Western colleagues at U.S. International Media, she operated her own media services consultancy.
Francine has frequently been honored by her industry peers. She received the Northern California Broadcasters Association “Top of the Dial Award” in 1998, the Bay Area Advertising Relief Committee (BAARC) “Wally Award” for outstanding service to the marketing community in 2000 and was voted into the San Francisco Television and Radio “STAR Hall of Fame” for unprecedented service to the Bay Area advertising community in 2005.
When not hard at work for clients, she’s an admitted “foodie” (her husband, Paul, owns and operates a restaurant), finds ways to accomplish her first love--teaching--and promote literacy (“it’s critical to the future of our community and nation”).