Meet the team
The RKESTRA team will help you
orchestrate your success.
Valérie Gervais
Founder & CEO
valerie@rkestra.ca
Valerie Gervais is a strategic communication professional with nearly two decades of leadership experience in internal and external communications, change and issues management, and public affairs.
Fluently bilingual, she has led communications for a range of high-profile initiatives, events, and issues, including international diplomatic events; awareness, fundraising, marketing, recruitment, and stakeholder engagement campaigns; workforce adjustments in unionized environments; organizational and governance changes; digital and traditional media outreach; and major projects in campus environments.
With newsroom experience and having served in key public affairs roles at Rideau Hall, a Minister’s office, the House of Commons, and the Ottawa Hospital, Valerie has extensive experience advising senior decision-makers in high-pressure arenas.
Valerie holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Ottawa. She has served on the Board of the uOttawa Alumni Association since 2018, including three years as President.
Franca Palazzo
VP, PArtnership & STakeholder Engagement
franca@rkestra.ca
Franca Palazzo brings over 20 years of expertise in delivering tailored business and program development strategies that propel brands to success.
Among her consulting clients, Franca serves as Executive Director of the Internet Society, Canada Chapter—an organization advocating for an accessible, fair, and open internet. In this role, she leads partnership and sponsorship outreach, event project management, membership cultivation, communications strategy, and develops and implements research and policy programs.
Franca worked as the Partnership and Engagement Lead for CAPAM, identifying funders and partners for both programs and events. She has worked as Program Manager, Research, for the Institute on Governance where she developed and managed activities supporting the Institute’s research programs. She has also acted as Vice President, Business Relations for an arbitration centre in Toronto.
She has worked as a consultant to the legal and medical industries—building relationships between professionals, associations, educators, and beyond.
Franca holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McMaster University.
Alessia Matsos
Director of Digital Strategy
alessia@rkestra.ca
With 8+ years of expertise in digital content and communications, Alessia Matsos uses a fresh, inclusive, and analytics-informed approach to strengthen brands and grow audiences in a wide range of sectors. Alessia roots her work in social change—centering and amplifying the voices of those who need a platform the most.
She specializes in social media strategy and management, graphic design, web maintenance, creative writing and copyediting, media relations, email marketing, audience cultivation, brand campaign and fundraising appeal implementation, video editing, and event logistics and promotion.
Alessia is the former Communications Coordinator for the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and was previously the Digital Content Officer for the Equality Fund. She has consulted for the Internet Society – Canada Chapter, the Innovators and Entrepreneurs Foundation, the Canadian Club of Ottawa, Metropolitain Brasserie restaurant, and beyond.
Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Alessia is a Dean’s List graduate of Western University with an Honours Specialization in Media, Information, and Technoculture and a minor in English Writing and Literature.