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Our Company
KWE group, inc. is a marketing communications and public relations agency specializing in the travel, hospitality and lifestyle industries. Since our founding in 1979, we have spearheaded programs for leaders in all segments of the travel and leisure industry. From Visa USA, Virtuoso, Hyatt Hotels, Ritz-Carlton and American Airlines, to boutique hotels worldwide and the governments of Mexico City, Hong Kong and Finland, we've worked for the "Players" in the industry and have made new companies and products into "Players".
For 23 years the firm, then known as KWE Associates, was headquartered in New York City. In 2002, Karen Weiner Escalera, President and Founder, moved the company to a new headquarters in Miami and launched the KWE group, inc. as a consulting and full service marketing communications and travel public relations firm.
Karen Weiner Escalera
President & CEO
Karen Weiner Escalera formed her own company after working for Hilton International where she directed the public relations programs for 22 hotels in ten countries. A former editor of United Business Publications and a writer for the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and numerous national magazines, she began her public relations career with Jacobson/Wallace/Westphal in New York. Prior to journalism and public relations, she was an English professor at the Universidad Nacional in Bogota, Colombia.
Her campaigns and business innovation have been cited as setting a standard for the industry in publications including Advertising Age, Nation's Business, Fortune Small Business, The Cornell Quarterly, and she has frequently graced the cover of leading industry journals.
In 1989, ten years after starting her own firm Karen was named a public relations "All Star," the leading agency professional in the travel and leisure community in the United States. The award was given by Relate, the public relations supplement to Adweek's Marketing Week. Two years later, the firm was voted one of America's "20 Hot Small Agencies" by Inside PR, citing its strategic thinking and creativity. In 1993, she received the prestigious Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International's Winthrop W. Grice "Lifetime Achievement" Award for the advancement of public relations.
A thought leader in luxury lifestyle, Karen is editor of an internationally syndicated Luxury Travel Trends & Insights newsletter and blog on the same topic. She is a founding member of Tourism Trademark, a global network of independent marketing communications firms specializing in travel, hospitality and destinations.
The Luxury Marketing Council, an invitation-only network of top managers and leading marketers of luxury goods and services in Miami, named her to its International Luxury Advisory Board, the directing arm of the council.
Serving her community through pro-bono work, she is on the Executive Board of the Funding Arts Network (FAN), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing the diverse visual and performing arts programs in Miami-Dade County through member supported grants.
Karen has been included in Who's Who in the World. She graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.