Lori K. Teranishi

Lori Teranishi brings more than 20 years experience in business, communications and marketing expertise as Co-Principal and Chief Operating Officer for VPG LLP, and as director of the firm’s San Francisco and Honolulu offices. Ms. Teranishi’s skills include communications strategy and execution, marketing, and product development and management.

Ms. Teranishi leverages her operations background to provide issues and crisis management and litigation p.r. counsel to Fortune 500 companies and their outside legal counsel in a variety of industries spanning financial services, energy, healthcare, hospitality, transportation, real estate and consumer goods. 

Prior to becoming a principal in VPG, Ms. Teranishi was vice president of Product Development with Visa U.S.A., where she led a team of 60 developers, product managers and sales directors to launch a national loyalty rewards program for Visa credit and debit cards.  In her seven years with Visa, Ms. Teranishi held a variety of positions, including chief of staff to Visa USA’s chief operating officer where she instituted a company-wide business planning process and assisted in negotiating major deals with Fortune 50 companies.

While at Visa, Ms. Teranishi also provided litigation communications strategy for a variety of high-profile cases involving Visa U.S.A, including a U.S. Supreme Court case alleging anticompetitive practices.

Her work has been awarded numerous national marketing and public relations industry awards, including a PR Week Award for Best Small Business campaign, a regional Public Relations Society of America award for a top crisis communications plan and several Effie Awards from the American Marketing Association for the national launch of Quaker State Q Lube’s retail oil change centers. Her community relations campaign to start a national used oil collection program was awarded the State of Utah’s highest environmental award and a variety of commendations from municipalities including Phoenix, Indianapolis and Seattle.

Ms. Teranishi received an M.B.A .from the University of San Francisco, and a B.S. in Mass Communications and a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Utah.

Education

• M.B.A., University of San Francisco
• B.S., Mass Communications, University of Utah
• B.S., Political Science, University of Utah

Noteworthy

• PR Week Award, Best Small Business campaign
• Public Relations Society of America award, crisis communications plan
• Effie Awards, American Marketing Association for the national launch of Quaker State Q Lube’s retail oil change centers
• State of Utah’s highest environmental award
• Commendation from Phoenix, Indianapolis and Seattle.

Memberships

• Member, Legal Marketing Association