Matthew Rovner
Public Relations, Advertising & Marketing
Matthew has enjoyed
a career in foodservice communications spanning more than 25 years.
His industry experience began first hand, working full-time as a
waiter and bartender in Boston’s nightclub scene while attending
college. From there, he segued into the restaurant industry
becoming a manager, then progressing to general manager at a series
of successful local restaurant and bars.
He left the
restaurant business and became an account executive & public
relations director at BM&W Creative Services, a full service
graphics design firm. Matthew was recruited in 1983 by Boston
advertising legend Steve Cosmopulos to become the public relations
director of Cosmopulos, Crowley & Daly. In 1984, he founded Rovner
Public Relations, Inc., and built his business primarily with
foodservice clients –independently owned and operated restaurants
and locally owned multi-unit, multi-concept restaurant companies.
In 1989, Matthew joined forces with Michael Ward to create a
full-service public relations, advertising and marketing firm. The
addition of these expanded services allowed him to attract large
chain operators beginning to infiltrate the New England market.
Matthew has
developed and implemented public relations, advertising and
marketing programs for restaurant accounts as varied as Au Bon Pain,
California Pizza Kitchen, Back Bay Restaurant Group, Bruegger’s
Bagel Bakery, Friendly’s, P. F. Chang’s China Bistro, John Harvard’s
Brew House, The Capital Grille, Skipjack’s, Il Capriccio, FireFly’s,
Zaftigs and the Tuscan Grill, to name a few.
Matthew has also guest lectured on marketing and
public relations at Art Institute of Boston, Boston University, Cape
Cod Community College, Emerson College, New York Institute of
Technology, Northeastern University, Roosevelt University and the
National Restaurant Association’s MUFSO Convention. He has written
on public relations and marketing for Restaurant Business &
Restaurant Hospitality and Yankee Food Service. He is
acting president and a member of the board of directors of The
Greater Table, a non-profit foundation that has donated more than
one million dollars to local and international hunger relief
programs. |
