MediaMiser pulls job roll reversal

By Christina Davies

davi0455@algonquincollege.com

Two Algonquin public relations alumni have taken their former teacher on as a senior associate in their homegrown media analysis firm.

Chris Morrison and Brett Serjeanson are proud to be joined by Claudine Wilson, professor and founder of Algonquin's public relations program, at MediaMiser.

"We basically said, 'man, she's got a lot of value that we should tap into.' And a lot of it's probably from the fact that we know Claudine and we know what she's capable of," said Serjeanson, the company's chief technology officer and founder.

Serjeanson and Morrison graduated from the PR program in 1994 and went their separate ways before Serjeanson started experimenting with programming and databases. It was then he came up with the idea for their software, which helps companies manage, search, and analyze media coverage from print, broadcast, video feeds, radio, and blogs, based on their needs.

"Our system is able to collect the information and logically sort it and be able to sort it by the way the organization thinks and wants to have the information sorted and organized," said Serjeanson.

"I love them and I love the product and certainly being able to work with grads is tremendous," said Wilson. "I wouldn't have done it anywhere where I couldn't fully believe in the product and the team."

Wilson said that she thought the pair were great students while they were in her program.

"They were all quite young, so I wish I could say that I saw this entrepreneurial side of them. I didn't, but I was not surprised. They were very talented," she said. "Brad is excellent at the technological side, and Chris is the VP of client services and that is a niche made for him."

"In my opinion it was a perfect fit and I know Chris feels the same way," said Serjeanson. "What she's doing for us now, or what she's planning to do, we'll benefit from for sure."