/// Open to Comms and Digital/Social Leadership Roles
Different is better than better.
- Creative DisruptionObserve how it's always been done, then do it differently. Two awards and three #1 rankings say it works.3 case studies ↓
- Social Media LeadershipBuilt and ran the teams behind the Blazers, STN's biggest accounts and T-Mobile's corporate social.5 case studies ↓
- Executive Comms & PRVoice of five CEOs, John Legere included. Before that, seven years of Trail Blazers PR.3 case studies ↓
- Content & ProductionA $1M annual production budget shipped on time, from Super Bowl stunts to iPhone launches.2 case studies ↓
- Talent DirectionShaq, Jamie Foxx, Luka Dončić and CP3: relaxed, on message and on camera.2 case studies ↓
- On-Camera & PodcastingCo-created and co-hosted The Trail, the franchise's official podcast. Blazers TV segments too.0 case studies ↓
- AI & Emerging TechEarly enterprise AI adopter at T-Mobile. A deepfake campaign that hit 100K+ views per spot.1 case study ↓
- PhotographyCourtside, red carpet, portraits and events. 1,200+ photos on this page and at kris.photo.1,343 photos ↓
I take challenger brands from worst to first. When we couldn't outspend the competition, we out-created them.
/// Recognition
2×NBA Digital Innovator of the Year3×#1 NBA social brand, Complex (2015–17)Top 100Social Influencers, Sports IllustratedCase studies
Pick a hat above, or a filter here, to see the work behind it.
T-MobileScaling Corporate Social StrategySixteen executives had full-time publicists. Everyone else had a hunch and a group chat.ZERONew Headcount Required
SAG Awards • TurnerRaw Emotion from Sterling K. Brown at SAG AwardsOne iPhone vs. the entire press line.No. 1Turner's top-performing video of the night
T-Mobile × Sam's Club · Partnership LaunchSam's Club: The Booth HuntThey just wanted to do a press release...~500booth photos in the comments by end of day one
T-Mobile · Super Bowl LIVIf 5G Drops In a Stadium and Nobody's there to see it...5G Done "Right"?OneOverreaction from Verizon
T-Mobile × SpaceXLaunching From Space(X): T-Mobile CoverageThe night we killed the dead zone.500,000sq. miles of dead zones erased, from space
Twitter Sports • STN DigitalRed Carpet Rush in VegasFight-night activation in 11 days.80%of talent posted it to their own channels. We promised 70Photography
13 albums · 1,343 photos, live from kris.photo.
Brands I've worked with
The full list →
How I work
More →Prove It • Teach It
Leader By Example
Leadership by doing or delegating: whatever is required. Two-time NBA Digital Innovator of the Year, three straight years running the league's #1 social brand, and $1M+ productions shipped on time annually — because I was in it with the team, not above it.
Predict · Prevent · Profit
Creative Budget Saver
I spot the expensive problem before it becomes one — then create governors to prevent future cost. VIP Social Program, SpaceX and beyond: no bloated vendor contract, no red tape, just faster results for less money. That's the difference between managing a budget and actually saving one.
Ideator · Dreamer
Think Different.
Different is better than better. While everyone zigs, I zag — change the perspective, change the result. From the whiteboard to the final export, I make the ideas and then I make the things, in whatever medium the story deserves.
Nimble · Resilient · Objective
Get. It. Done.
My VP said it best handing me my MVP award: ‘Give Kris a project — he'll get it done no matter what.’ Ten years earlier, the Blazers President proved it too, tapping a rookie with zero experience to redesign the team's lobby floor-to-ceiling. That's not a pitch. That's my reputation.
Career
Full track record →- 2025 — 2026Sono BelloExecutive Communications (CEO) · Bellevue, WA
- 2018 — 2024T-MobileSenior Lead, Social Media · Bellevue, WA
- 2017 — 2018STN DigitalSenior Accounts Director · San Diego, CA
- 2014-2017Portland Trail BlazersManaging Editor, Team & Arena Content · Portland, OR
- 2008-2014Portland Trail BlazersPR Manager · Portland, OR
/// Bio
Kris Koivisto
- Pacific Northwest
- Portland · San Diego · Seattle
- Open to Comms and Digital/Social Leadership Roles
Schooled in marketing, groomed in comms, refined in social. I am an introvert with ADHD who's passionate about bucking the status quo and challenging conventional wisdom. I'm a firm believer that different is better than better. I do my best work when the destination is clear and I'm given the autonomy to determine how to get there.
Born and raised in Northeast Portland, Oregon I was a sports junkie growing up. I chased my hoop dreams as far as they would take me, but eventually let it go in lieu of a career in sports.
Straight out of college, I joined my hometown team, the Portland Trail Blazers—a franchise I had grown up idolizing. I spent seven years on the PR team before transitioning to digital and social, where I found my niche managing content for the team as well as Moda Center events. The collaborative work of our team turned a lot of heads, which led to a role with a social media agency in San Diego, where I worked with some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment.
— Why I do this
Everything else is just proof.
I was the biggest basketball fan on the planet before I'd ever really seen a game. By age 12 I knew every player in the league — their stats, their hometown, their whole backstory — cold. Here's the kicker: we didn't have cable. The only live NBA I watched was NBC's NBA on NBC, and I didn't set foot in an arena until middle school. Everything else I built myself, out of box scores and beat-writer columns, stacks of newspapers and magazines I'd pore over until I understood a league I'd never actually seen. That's the part of me that never left. I still find the story in the data first — the trend before it's a headline, the breakout before the highlight reel.
But data's only half of it. I believe different is better than better, and I'm a perfectionist with a weakness for abstract, minimal, clean. I can cobble something together myself — I've got a photographer's eye — but that's not the talent. The talent is knowing exactly how the final thing should look, then finding the people who can build it better than I ever could. I whiteboard it, describe it, mock the thing up rough. Then I find the teammates with the skill I don't have — in the creative department, in front of the camera — and hand it off. When it ships, the credit goes to them. Always them. Always them.
— Kris, Portland