Our People

Amy Binder is the founder and CEO of New York City-based RF|Binder Partners Inc., an integrated communications firm, with branches in Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Amy started her communications career in 1983 at the storied public relations firm of Ruder Finn, founded by her father David Finn, where she rose to become President of Ruder Finn Americas. She founded her own communications firm, RF|Binder in 2001, first as an independently run agency under the Ruder Finn Group umbrella, and then as part of a 2014 restructuring, as a separate woman-owned integrated communications agency. RF|Binder focuses on working with major global corporations and brands on corporate reputation and brand assignments as well as with entrepreneurs and start-ups. She has embraced the use of advanced analytical tools for measuring the success of social media programs and monitoring in real time client related news and events. Over the past several years she has increased the agency’s commitment to corporate social responsibility for its clients and itself. In addition to overseeing the business direction and growth of the agency, Amy is focused on ensuring that every client receives consistent, high-quality service, has continual access to the agency’s best creative and strategic thinking, as well as ensuring that the agency is offering the most innovative use of newly emerging communications channels. Amy’s work has been characterized by creating integrated communications programs that work across communications channels from traditional to digital. She has focused on managing the issues and challenges that emerge when the interests of the public, private sector and government converge. Under Amy’s leadership, RF|Binder has won close to 200 industry awards since the company’ founding, including Creative Agency of the Year from Holmes Report, Best Places to Work in NYC from Crains, and from PRWeek as a finalist for Best Mid-Sized Agency. Clients have included such diverse organizations as Ameriprise, Bank of America, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cargill, Chubb, Citibank, Dunkin’ Brands, McGraw Hill Education, Rockefeller Foundation, edX, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Schwab and PaxWorld. Amy is a board member of The Institute for Public Relations and the Media Advisory Council for Brown University. She is a member of Columbia Business School’s Family Business Program Advisory Board and has been a guest lecturer in its Family Business MBA program. She has been a recent speaker at National Association of Corporate Directors events for public company directors focused on the relationship between Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) issues and corporate strategy. Amy received her A.B. with Honors from Brown University and her M.B.A. from the Columbia Business School.

Rebecca Binder is the President of RF|Binder and is responsible for the development and implementation of Strategic Initiatives for the firm. She oversees strategic planning, expansion of products and services to meet emerging client needs, new business development, talent and culture development, operational efficiency, and strategic communications consulting. Over the course of her career, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, international organizations, non-profits, and start-ups. Most recently, Rebecca worked at Innosight, a growth strategy consulting firm, where she advised C-suite executives on developing long-term transformational growth strategies in the face of disruption. Rebecca was recently recognized as a 2019 Next Gen to Watch by Family Business Magazine for her work at RF|Binder. Rebecca received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and her B.A. with honors in International Relations from Brown University.

Atalanta Rafferty oversees strategic corporate communications programs, working extensively in the food and consumer lifestyle industries. She brings 20 years of experience working on corporate and consumer communications issues for category & market leaders, emerging companies, as well as family and founder businesses. For the last ten years, Atalanta has worked with clients across sectors including food and food biotech, lifestyle and wellness, CPGs, wine, spirits and beverages managing integrated consumer marketing programs. Atalanta is an expert in navigating disruption having dealt with issues of sustainability, food safety, nutrition, product labeling on the one hand and retail promotions, large scale consumer events and the advent of food bloggers and social media on the other. Over the years, Atalanta has developed and executed strategic partnerships with not-for profit organizations, influences, celebrities, and organizations to support her clients’ business goals. Through these experiences Atalanta has honed an expertise in helping to launch new products & categories as well as supporting geographic expansions and brand transformations. Atalanta also has a background in journalism and crisis communications. She received a B.A. with honors from Brown University. She is bilingual in French and English and has a basic knowledge of German.

David Weinstock brings more than 20 years of experience in advertising, design, marketing, digital, PR, experiential and content creation to his position as Chief Creative Officer at RF|Binder. Prior to joining RF|Binder, he was the Executive Creative Director for MSLGROUP NY, where he founded the creative department and oversaw creative across all channels on the agency’s lead accounts. His clients included P&G brands such as Crest, Oral B, Nyquil, Febreze, Bounty, and Charmin. In 2014, David’s campaign for March of Dimes won PRWeek’s Nonprofit Campaign of the Year, Publicity Club of New England’s Silver Bell Award, In2 SABRE’s In2 Advertising Award, and Pro Awards’ Platinum Award. Prior to the MSLGROUP, David served as VP, Creative Director at MKTG Inc. in New York, Creative Director of On-Air Marketing at The Oprah Winfrey Network, SVP, Director of Design at MRM/McCann Worldwide, and SVP, Director of Design at Campbell Mithun Minneapolis. He has received recognition from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Ad Week, Creativity Magazine, SHOOT Magazine, Graphic Design USA, Print Magazine, Ad Age, and the Broadcast Designers Association. As an award-winning commercial director, David created and directed broadcast, online, and in-cinema campaigns for clients including Sony, Nokia, Nike, MTV, Oppenheimer Funds, US Bank, Bayer, and TGI Fridays, to name a few. He received a Clio for a campaign he directed for Trojan Condoms. His directorial work has been highlighted in Adweek’s “Ad of The Day,” Brand Freak, and Boards Magazine. David is a graduate of Pratt Institute in New York with a degree in Communications Design.

As Vice Chairman, Steve primarily works in the areas of strategic planning, agency expansion, new business development, client retention and legal affairs. Steve has been a long time counselor to the Agency. He served as our outside corporate counsel from our inception in 2001 until 2014. In 2014, Steve joined RF Binder’s Board of Directors and in Fall 2016, Steve came on board full time as Executive Managing Director. Prior to joining RF Binder, Steve spent two plus years helping to run a hedge fund, which included work in the regulatory, compliance and marketing areas of the firm. As an attorney, Steve has extensive experience in domestic and international business transactions, with a focus in the financial services area. He has served as counsel to major banks and other financial institutions. As a law partner he chaired the Business and Technology Group for the New York office of the national law firm, Cooley LLP, and prior to that he chaired the Corporate Department and Banking and Other Financial Institutions group in the predecessor law firm, Kronish Lieb. He also helped form and lead for a number of years, Interlaw Ltd, an association of independent law firms worldwide, with 55 member firms and 110 offices during his tenure. During his legal career, Steve, at various times, was the head of his firm’s and Interlaw’s marketing and public relations functions. Steve has been listed many times by Euromoney/Law Media Group in its “Guide to the World’s Leading Banking Lawyers.” He has a B.S. in Engineering from Cornell University, an M.B.A. from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and a J.D. from the Cornell Law School, where he was an Editor of its Law Review.

As Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Jason is responsible for managing RF|Binder’s global financial operations. Jason oversees financial strategy and planning, budgeting, auditing, treasury, legal functions and financial systems, as well as contributes to business planning. Jason oversees human resources, company insurance, contracts and agreements, corporate level negotiations including real estate and major supplier and clients contracts. Prior to joining RF|Binder, Jason held positions with Cross Media Marketing, a publicly traded online & traditional direct marketing company, first performing due diligence on potential acquisitions and later responsible for the financial operations of the Print Division as Controller. At Grant Thornton, he served clients seeking to acquire other companies with Due Diligence and M&A services, and at Deloitte & Touche, he served financial, consumer, and telecom clients in an audit advisory role. He holds an M.B.A. from Fordham Business School with a dual concentration in Finance and Media & Communications and received his B.S. in Accounting from St. John’s University and is a Certified Public Accountant. He is a member of the New York Society of CPA’s and he serves as a Director on the Fordham Business School Alumni Association.

Bill works with business leaders on communications strategies that help companies strengthen their competitive position, drive growth and protect the reputation of their brands. A former editor, journalist and senior communications executive at leading financial institutions, he has worked with investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, private equity firms, financial technology firms, exchanges and trading platforms, and energy companies. In 2011, he founded Bryant Park Financial Communications, winner of the PR Week’s 2015 Award for Best IR/Financial Communications Program. Bryant Park’s clients include a leading global investment, the largest electronic trading platform for corporate bonds, and the largest independent registered investment advisor in the United States. Previously, Bill was a Senior Partner at Gavin Anderson, a global communications consultancy. He joined Gavin Anderson from Edelman, where he headed the account team that won the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Award for investor relations counsel to a Midwest utility undergoing restructuring. His corporate background includes serving as Managing Director of Corporate Communications at Bankers Trust and Corporate Affairs Executive for Bank of America’s Asset Management Group, with responsibility for the bank’s mutual fund, private bank, brokerage and alternative investments businesses. A graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bill worked five years in Paris as Financial Editor of the International Herald Tribune and was previously an editor on the national news desk of The Wall Street Journal in New York. He has been a contributor to The New York Times, Directors & Boards, Global Finance magazine and TABB Forum, a website on financial markets and technology.

Armel Leslie is an Executive Managing Director joining from Peaks Strategies, where he was a Partner. Peaks Strategies was acquired by RF|Binder and is now RFB | Peaks Strategies.

Armel delivers integrated brand-building campaigns for clients across the capital markets ecosystem including traditional and alternative asset management, professional services, financial technology and trade bodies.

Armel started his career with Tom Walek at Walek & Associates in 1999 where he rose to a Partner by the time of its sale to integrated PR agency Peppercomm in 2013, where Armel was a Senior Director. Following his time at Peppercomm, Armel was a Senior Vice President at Sloane & Company before rejoining Tom Walek at Peaks Strategies.

He graduated cum laude with a BA in History from Baruch College (CUNY), where he worked at the Press Office his senior year. A Native of South Africa, he also attended the University of South Africa (UNISA). He is a Board Member and Treasurer of American Friends of Tikvot, a philanthropic organization headquartered in Israel.

Ted Deutsch oversees the Taft Communications division of RF|Binder, specializing in client work focused on ESG, life sciences and nonprofit communications. He brings 30 years of communications and public affairs experience and provides strategic counsel to Taft clients articulating their core purpose to key stakeholders in the pharmaceutical, higher education, and clean energy spaces. Earlier in his career, Ted was a vice president of communications & public affairs for public companies Novartis and Avis Budget Group and has been responsible for media relations, national product launches, crisis management, and employee engagement campaigns. Ted received his A.B. in history from Princeton University and M.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University. He spent five years as a lecturer in the MBA Program of the Wharton School of Business and has served on various New Jersey nonprofit boards. Named the Princeton Mercer Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year in 2023, Ted is ESG chair of PROI, the largest global network of independent communications firms.

As the Chief Technology Officer, Tom is responsible for managing RF|Binders technology related operations. Tom oversees all of the planning, implementation and support of RF|Binder’s cloud and on-premise hardware infrastructure and software services. At the same time he is very much hands-on in the setup and troubleshooting of those components and associated services – which range from employee equipment on the front end, to video conferencing / voice service, networking and security equipment, collaboration software, to identity management and ERP systems on the back end. Tom has been with RF|Binder since its inception in 2001. Prior to RF|Binder Tom was the Network Administrator and later the IT Manager at Ruder Finn. Tom holds the equivalent of a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Otto von Guericke University in Germany and a Masters of Aeronautical Science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

Ava Seave is a Principal of Quantum Media, a consulting firm with deep expertise in the media, information, and entertainment industries. The consulting group has been named by Forbes and Statista Inc. as one of “America’s Best Management Consulting Firms for three years in a row, including the current year.” Ava has led numerous consulting engagements and has provided senior-level management consulting services to public and private, traditional and startup companies in a broad range of assignments that typically involve strategy, new product development, and marketing. Before founding Quantum Media with four others in 1998, she was a general manager at three leading media companies: Scholastic Inc., The Village Voice, and TVSM, the country’s largest cable-listings magazine. Ava has two adjunct appointments at Columbia University: At the Business School, where she teaches “Media and Entertainment Strategy Consulting” and at the Journalism School, where she teaches “Managing the 21st Century Newsroom” with William Grueskin. She has written numerous cases for journalism and MBA students, including a detailed look at the French business and policy news organization based in Paris, L’Opinion. She is co-author of two books, “The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism” (with Grueskin and Graves) and “Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies” (with Knee and Greenwald). For the FCC Report (June 2011) on the Future-of-the-Media task force, she contributed research and writing as part of the working group that produced “The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape in a broadband age.” She was a contributor to Forbes.com, writing on the media. Ava is a Board member of two non-profits: The American Poetry Review and DeLaSalle Academy, an independent middle school for extremely bright, but financially challenged middle schoolers. Previously, she was on the boards of private companies Waywire/Magnify and Davler Media. Seave graduated from Brown University with an A.B. (Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Business School with an M.B.A.

Bruce Schneider provides strategic counsel to RF|Binder and its clients in the wine industry. As a third-generation wine industry professional with a background in grape growing, wine making, public relations, and new product development he brings a valuable perspective to regional wine promotion organizations and the wine producers they represent. Over his 20-year career, Schneider has been a political campaign field coordinator, founder and chief executive of his own agency, the founder, winemaker and managing director of Schneider Vineyards, a 22-acre cabernet franc focused vineyard on the North Fork of Long Island, director of marketing for the Clicquot, Inc. division of LVMH USA, a wine importer, and co-founder of Gotham Project, a pioneer of wine-on-tap. He has counseled clients from every major wine producing country in the world. Bruce has a M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. in History from Washington University; he was the second investment recipient of The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Fund at Columbia University School of Business.

Tom is a Senior Counselor, working closely with clients to develop and execute creative, business-driven integrated communications.

From 2016 to 2023, Tom was Founder and Managing Partner of Peaks Strategies, which was acquired by RF|Binder and is now RFB | Peaks Strategies. From 1998 to 2013, Tom was Founder and President of Walek & Associates, an award-winning independent communications firm known globally for its work in hedge funds, asset management, capital markets and financial services. Walek & Associates, with offices in New York and Hong Kong, represented many well-known global firms, as well as emerging market leaders. Tom and his team earned numerous awards and recognitions for their work from organizations including HedgeWeek, HFM, National Investor Relations Institute, the Public Relations Society of America and Trout Unlimited. Tom holds the “Outstanding Contributions” designation for Hedge Fund Media Communications and Messaging from The Hedge Fund Journal. Tom sold Walek & Associates in 2013. From 1982-1995 Tom was Principal and Managing Director at WeiserWalek, where he was responsible for growth and client service at the firm’s New York office.

Tom is a member of the National Press Club and a former member of the Communications and Global Communications committees of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA). Tom chaired the AIMA sub-committee that produced the first “AIMA Guide to Media Relations for the Hedge Fund Industry” and helped write subsequent updates. Tom has been a featured speaker in the US and abroad for organizations including the Association for Investment Sales Executives, Euromoney, Institutional Investor, AIMA, Compliance Asia, Futures Industry Association, The Investment Company Institute, Credit Suisse, Managed Funds Association and The Association of Women in Alternatives. He has authored numerous articles published in the AIMA Journal, CFA Institute and others.

Tom began his career as a financial journalist covering the daily action and global expansion of derivatives capital markets from the trading floors of the Chicago futures exchanges. Tom graduated cum laude in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, including a year of study at the University of Lancaster, UK. While in Chicago, Tom attended the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Over the course of her 25+-year career, Allison has held senior leadership roles at Bain & Company, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Gartner, and Accenture. Most recently, Allison was a Managing Director in Accenture’s Banking and Capital Markets Strategy Consulting practice and the Northeast Financial Services Strategy lead. She was previously a Senior Managing Partner at Gartner where she helped run the North American Financial Services Consulting practice. At Citibank, she led the Emerging Affluent and Mass Market Client Segments for the North American Consumer Bank. Throughout her career, Allison has presented at conferences in the United States and Europe on various topics related to Financial Services Strategy.

In addition to her client-facing and practice development roles, Allison has spent a significant portion of her career making strong contributions in employee recruiting, training, coaching, and mentorship. She has also helped lead sessions on employee success factors at Harvard Business School.

Allison received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, where she concentrated in Romance Languages and Literatures with a specialization in French Studies. Allison received her MBA from Harvard Business School with honors.

Most recently, Allison founded Latticework LLC, a career counseling, job search, and coaching firm.

Allison lives in Westchester, New York, with her two teenage daughters.