All in the

Cover Story
Marc Altieri (second from left) briefs hip hop singer Kanye West (third from left) before
a Motorola event at Superbowl XL in Detroit. Marc graduated from CSULB in 1997.
All in the
family
by Judith Frutig
Call them the Beach Brothers. They are two public
relations alums, who grew up in the South Bay. Both
are making waves in Southern California’s lucrative
sports marketing industry.
M
ike Altieri (B.A.,
1992) is vice
president of communications
and broadcasting for the
Los Angeles Kings, and any
media person who wants to
cover this NHL team has to
come through his office. His
brother, Marc Altieri (B.A.,
1997) is vice president of
marketing communications
for Leader Enterprises, a
sports public relations firm
in Seal Beach with a client
list that starts with DirecTV,
10 / Beach Byline
Taylor Made Golf, Toyota,
and Motorola, but doesn’t
stop there.
Neither do the Altieris. For
both of them, sports are a way
of life. “My feeling is that
hockey is the most exciting
live sport there is,” Mike says,
“not football, not baseball, not
basketball, but hockey. The
best thing about my career is
that it’s a fun job.”
“I’m a sports fan by
nature,” Marc adds. “I’m
doing something I’d do
whether I was paid or not.”
Some people go to college
for a degree. Some look for
a field to fit into. The Altieri
brothers found a journalismpublic relations program that,
as Marc said, “tapped into me
and what I am.”
Over years of building
separate, successful sports
marketing careers, the
brothers have stayed close to
Cal State Long Beach. Two
journalism professors, Emma
Daugherty-Phillingane
Cover Story
and Dr. William Mulligan,
remember the brothers as
standouts in public relations
and Media Law. Mike Altieri
was quiet, competitive and
consistent. Marc Altieri
challenged them in ways
that elevated the learning
environment. “It was evident
to me as a professor that
these two young men had
a great deal of drive and
the talent to make it,” says
Daugherty-Phillingane. “We
still use a crisis plan Marc
developed as a model for our
public relations classes.” In
conversations with Beach
Byline, the Altieris talked
about their campus days and
offered a rare look inside
sports marketing.
M
ike Altieri is in his
14th season with
the Kings, responsible for
overseeing all aspects of
communications, media
relations, broadcasting and
Web site operations. On
game days, he arrives at 8
a.m. to read the newspapers,
and online news about NHL
teams around the league.
Before most Southern
Californians finish breakfast,
he has established the Kings’
story lines of the day.
At 10:30, the media
is already calling. “It’s a
very social environment,”
Altieri says. “We get them
to understand our message
points and get the message
material,” meaning statistics,
game notes and a daily
information packet about
players and coaches.
After practice, Altieri’s
staff holds a 30-minute
session for beat reporters.
“They meet with the coaches
and players. We make
sure they’re available for
questions and interviews.”
Winter 2009
By 4 p.m., Altieri is at
Staples Center. He doesn’t
get home until 11:30. “It’s
a lot of high level energy,”
Altieri says. “The online
world has changed the pace
of professional hockey. We’re
forging new relationships.”
New media has opened
digital doors to sports
bloggers. “We’ve created
our own Website to cover
the team,” says Altieri,
who wants Kings fans to
go to LAKings.com to get
information straight from the
source. “Hockey fans know
they can get information on
our site.” It offers immediate
access, “but fans know it’s
from the team. They want
new stories but they don’t
want them filtered.”
M
arc Altieri’s mornings
start at 8:30 in the
Seal Beach offices of Leader
Enterprises. First order of
business: sift through emails
from East Coast clients and
address overnight media
needs, then meetings with key
staff people. “We make sure
the dominoes are set up,” he
says.
At 11 a.m., client
conference calls begin. He
writes press releases and
directs projects and every
day is different. One of his
most frustrating was the day
the Associated Press was
interested in a story about
Power Plate, a fitness product
that works with calibrated
vibrations. “I worked with
the reporter, gave her good
information from unbiased
doctors,” he says, “- soup to
nuts information, contacts
who were familiar with
technology, people who could
talk about why they liked it or
not.” A good reporter “takes
time to hear you out and
Winter 2009
Mike Altieri answers questions from reporters at a Los Angeles Kings press conference. Mike graduated from CSULB in 1992.
trusts that you’re not trying to
manipulate their story.” She
found “a quack medical guy”
from Stony Brook University,
who made comparisons
between Power Plate and
work place vibrations. “You
know, tractors,” he says.
“She told me she had. I said,
‘There’s a world of difference
between calibrated vibrations
and a jackhammer.’ ”
Altieri’s afternoons focus
on client meetings and new
business; he usually works
until 6 p.m. Every month, he
spends considerable time in
the field, working with each
of his clients.
Some of his highest —
and lowest — days came
earlier in his career, when
he represented former St.
Louis Cardinals slugger
Mark McGwire. Altieri was
an account executive for Hill
and Knowlton, and McGwire
came to them in 1998 during
the race to break Roger Maris’
home run record. Altieri
screened media requests and
accompanied him to photo
shoots. “He and I got to be
pretty tight,” Altieri says, “I
probably should write a book
about what went on behind
the scenes.”
Those were McGwire’s
“glory days” and Altieri
fielded phone calls from as
far as the Vatican. The Pope
asked to meet McGwire
during his American tour
and Altieri arranged it. Then
came the steroid scandal, the
Senate hearings, and behindthe-scenes negotiations.
Altieri’s advice to McGwire
was different from what his
lawyers were saying. “He
never told us one way or
another, but we counseled
him to protect his legacy.
Altieri told McGwire,
“People understand that
athletes are human and
fallible.” He warned
McGwire that he was in for
“a rugged couple months,”
but implored him, “Don’t
plead the Fifth. If you say
something positive, you’ll
come out better.” At the
end, McGuire made the plea
and, “people took it as an
admission of guilt,” Altieri
says. “Now they’re saying
he’ll never get into the Hall
of Fame. It’s too bad.”
M
ike was the first
Altieri to enroll. He
was 25 and had worked in
the aerospace industry for
five years. “I made a huge
decision to go back to school
fulltime. I kept my head
down and decided to get my
degree as quickly as I could.”
His goal was 18 months.
He carried 15 units a
semester, and signed up for
every summer and winter
session class he could find.
“I had no idea where I was
going. My goal was to find
opportunities to grow into a
career in professional sports.”
In his senior year, Altieri
got to know a fellow student,
who was interning with the
California Angels. These
were the days before the
curriculum included an
internship class and Altieri
Beach Byline / 11
Cover Story
M
arc Altieri, five years
younger, followed the
path Mike forged, at the same
age and under remarkably
similar circumstances.
Marc came from a world
of music. In high school,
he played drums and wore
long hair. His day job was
at an airfreight office, but
at 5 p.m. he headed to the
music, which was “great fun”
until he turned 22 and began
“seeing the same guys at 45
still working the counter at
a guitar center.” He knew
the industry was all about
12 / Beach Byline
“luck of the draw.” He said
to himself, “I love sports.
Writing and speaking comes
easy. I want to go back to
school.” He enrolled in the
public relations program.
John Black hired Marc as
an intern. At Lakers games,
Marc sat with sportscasters
and beat writers from the L.A.
Times and Daily News. “I got
immersed in the media guys.”
Like his brother, Marc took
early morning classes and
worked for the Lakers. His
income came from teaching
drums, and another interest:
He followed regular exercise
regimen and took a job at a
nightclub as a bouncer.
He was an older student.
In the Altieri tradition he was
“
A
sk either brother and
the answer is the same:
the big benefit from CSULB
was learning the principles,
writing and infrastructure of
enlightened public relations.
For Mike a major “ah hah”
moment came in a journalism
class. His major was speech
communications. “When I
signed up, they said ‘you have
to have a minor.’ I said ‘uhhh,
how about public relations?’
and that meant news writing.”
In class, “We had a lesson on
writing news leads.” He didn’t
know what a lead was, but he
tried. “The instructor raved
about my work. She singled
my assignment out to the
whole class, and said ‘this guy
best friend in the world,”
Marc says. “I can’t even
express it enough. We are
different yet very similar.”
He describes Mike as “easy
going. He doesn’t rustle
feathers. When you knock
on his door, you know what
you’ll get. He’s reliable and
consistent. If he can’t do it,
he tells you why. He’s all
about truth and reality.”
Mike describes himself
as a “buttoned up” family
man. Marc, he says, “is
high-energy and passionate
and a little edgier.” He wears
tattoos and at 38 is still living
the singles lifestyle.
Their collective strength
comes from their differences.
They don’t collaborate on
Michael is my best friend in the world.
I can’t even express it enough. We
are different yet very similar.
committed,
focused and dedicated to
graduating in 18 months.
He remembers the day
Daugherty-Phillingane said,
“‘I just got a call from Todd
Brooks. He’s calling from
Hill and Knowlton, looking
for an intern in the sports
division.’ Sure enough, I
went in and got it.”
He graduated in May
1997 and went to work the
next Monday as an assistant
account executive at Hill and
Knowlton (H&K). His career
path is a direct trajectory from
H&K to DirecTV’s various
sports services, back to H&K,
still handling DirecTV, then
on with Todd Brooks to
open the West Coast offices
of Leader Enterprises, a
marketing firm based in
Georgia with a reputation for
creating PR campaigns with a
news component.
— Marc Altieri
gets it.’ I said, ‘Wow, I can
do this!’ It really pushed me
forward.”
Marc’s biggest influence
was a class in public relations
campaigns. “It all came to
life in that class,” he says.
“My grandmother was
active in Catholic Daughters
of America,” the nation’s
largest Catholic-women’s
charity. “They wanted to
build greater awareness for
the organization, and they
wanted to keep themselves
contemporary.” He wrote a
public relations plan. “That
was my case study. It let me
work with my grandmother,
who I admired and loved.
And it was a real business.”
I
n the end, their success
comes in shared
experiences. “Michael is my
“
was intrigued. “He opened
my eyes to the fact that
internships were available
with major sports teams.”
His friend invited him to
a public relations seminar
and one of the speakers was
John Black (B.A., 1982), vice
president of public relations
for the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I expressed to him that I
was extremely interested in
working with the Lakers,”
Altieri says. Black surprised
him by offering him an
internship. “Mike came
across at first like an average
college student,” Black
recalls, “but in the office, he
really performed.”
Mike Altieri’s strength has
always been his performance.
In a short time, he was
supervising the intern staff.
His schedule was early
morning classes, part-time
work for the Lakers, and
a full-time job promoting
special events at the Forum
- setting up exhibition
games for professional roller
hockey, indoor soccer and
tennis and volleyball teams.
After graduation, he joined
the Kings at an entry-level
position and rose quickly to
the top.
projects. “I
don’t rely on Mike for the
Kings and he doesn’t rely on
me for his clients,” Marc says.
“The coolest thing comes
from people we meet in the
industry. Not a week goes
by that someone says, ‘Mike
Altieri, is he your brother?
He’s the best PR guy in
town.’ I gain more credibility
because of who he is.”
They’re on the phone at
least once a day. Their private
times come on the golf course
and they’re both involved in
a fantasy sports team. A few
weeks ago, they took a trip to
the Harbor Town Golf Course
at Hilton Head. “Playing
golf at Hilton Head is like a
baseball fan going to Yankee
Stadium,” Marc says. Mike
brought his wife and son.
Marc brought some friends.
And memories of their 49er
days at the Beach.
Winter 2009