arie Salerno, business consultant to professionals aspiring for success in the entertainment industry, comes from a family that gave her the ability to see clear solutions through the clutter of the day. Added to this is a deep sense of compassion - born of her having worked in the family funeral business and of her own recent near-death experience - which lets her hear beyond mere words that a person is saying.

As a young adult, Marie proceeded along a path of professional and personal development that brought her to consulting.

She rejected the notion of joining the family funeral business, gravitating instead to the communications field. Her first job was in statistical typing for a market research firm in Chicago. She became a research analyst, and then moved on to a Chicago advertising agency, where she learned the inner workings of the advertising business.

Her close working relationship with a creative director led to accompanying him to two other firms over a five year span. In 1970, Marie joined Bozell & Jacobs Advertising, working up to Manager of Print and Broadcast Traffic. While at Bozell she was a team member on the initial production of the syndicated TV program, Soul Train.

After Bozell, Marie was Broadcast Producer for Clinton E. Frank Advertising and then Studio Manager of Paragon Recording Studios, which at the time produced mostly albums for top artists, advertising "jingles" and voice-over announcer production.

Marie's career took its first turn towards working directly with performers when she accepted the position of production assistant on the film Cooley High. This assignment led to working as an agent for Shirley Hamilton, Inc., then the premier talent agency in Chicago. In her four years at Hamilton, Marie helped cast performers for TV pilots, programs, radio and TV commercials, trade shows and major theater productions. She also worked on movies for theatrical release and made-for-TV, some of which read like a list from "Who's Who" - Hair, Nickelodeon, Jaws II, Omen II, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Wedding, FJ.S.T., Fury, and Fun With Dick and Jane. Marie became the agency's point person for screening and grooming new performers.

While at Hamilton, Marie worked with and befriended Ann Fraser, helping the veteran San Francisco Bay Area celebrity negotiate her contract with KPIX-TV, the San Francisco CBS affiliate. Ann hosted The Morning Show. After completing her tenure at Hamilton, Marie was brought in to The Morning Show as a producer. Now a genuine behind-the-scenes force, she spent four years planning and interviewing daily guests and managing off-site logistics for the show. The program, which evolved into the live audience show, People are Talking, took on Ross McGowan, another Bay Area talent great. Marie built the audience to over 150 people a day.

In 1981, Marie joined the San Francisco offices of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG), as a business representative specializing in freelance performer contracts. She was appointed Assistant Executive Director in 1983, and in 1990 was named Associate Executive Director. Marie interpreted and changed the landscape of 23 union contracts, handling most of the negotiations. She was key negotiator for the AFTRA National Interactive Agreement (CD- ROM). She was instrumental in negotiating the TV and Radio commercials contracts, Sound Recordings, and Industrial (Non-Broadcast) agreements, and was national contact for both the AFTRA Industrial (non-broadcast) Educational/Recorded Materials code and Interactive agreements.

Because of her proximity to Silicon Valley, Marie made a point of being ahead of the curve in contracts for entertainers entering the rapidly expanding technology fields. She negotiated benchmark rates for talent used in voice mail, talking books, video and audio news releases, infomercials, home video and interactive media such as CD-ROM.

Marie became the spokesperson for AFTRA-SAG San Francisco, conducting seminars and lecturing in high schools, colleges, and in front of media trade groups and entertainment lawyers.

In 1995 Marie was stricken with Guillain Barre - a neurological disease that causes total paralysis of the body and occasionally death. As she tells the story, Marie knew that she would recover.

"What do you do when you can't do anything?" she muses. Her body had ceased to function, but her mental faculties were untouched. In response to the pain and head-to-toe paralysis, Marie drifted into a peaceful, meditative state devoid of the big worries and details of life. The months spent in this unique state of mind rewarded her with laser vision into the different ways one can be alive. Now, after a remarkable recovery, a big part of Marie's mission is to show people that they can believe in their abilities and live a life without fear.

Marie sums it up: "If we can float our way through adversity, illness, grief and other troubles and sorrows with a sense of calm acceptance, there is very little that will kill us, and much that will reward us."