Chris Brienza joined the Coyne team in May 2007, bringing nearly 20 years of senior-level PR, media relations and strategic communications experience.

Prior to Coyne, Brienza served as the executive director of publicity for the Sports Group magazine brands (Runner’s World, Bicycling, Backpacker and Mountain Bike) at Rodale, the world’s leading privately-held provider of health and wellness content. He was responsible for creating and executing all trade and consumer publicity efforts for the Sports Group, including its brand extensions and grassroots marketing efforts, and helped place the magazines’ editors and subjects on Today, Good Morning America, The Early Show, Nightline, ABC World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News, CNN, ESPN, CNBCand MSNBC,among many other outlets. He was also called upon to craft and create all internal and external written communications for the office of the company president.

Previously, Brienza had worked for nearly 15 years in professional sports at both the league and team level. He served as Vice President of Communications for Major League Soccer’s NY/NJ MetroStars (now Red Bulls) from 2000 to 2003, earning recognition as the league’s 2001 PR Executive of the Year in voting among U.S. soccer media and MLS team officials.

That was preceded by eleven years working within the National Basketball Association, including more than two years (1998 through 2000) as the league’s VP of Media Relations and three (1995 through 1998) as the Director of Media Relations. In those roles, he served as a primary spokesman for the league and helped supervise all day-to-day media relations efforts between the NBA and all North American print and electronic media, as well as with the league’s national broadcast partners. He also helped create all official league statements and external communications, helped supervise the media operations at all major NBA events (including the NBA Finals and All-Star Weekends) and served as part of the NBA’s PR support team with USA Basketball, the sport’s national governing body, during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

He also served as Director of Communications for the New York Knicks in 1994-95, following five years in publicity and editorial capacities with the league office.

A native of South Orange, NJ, Brienza earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University in 1987, where he was selected to Kappa Tau Alpha (the national journalism honor society) and played three seasons of varsity soccer. He is an avid (if mediocre) runner, cyclist and triathlete.