Lamarra Rice

Lamarra Rice is a Bronx-born, Bergenfield-raised entrepreneur, communications strategist, and the founder and CEO of GCPR Communications LLC, a boutique public relations and communications organization serving brands, founders, and organizations across the New York–New Jersey corridor.

Her approach to entrepreneurship was shaped by two distinct but complementary family legacies: ownership and service.

Her father, a Harlem native and retired MTA driver, was also a serial investor and entrepreneur. Beyond his career with the MTA, he owned N&P Auto, later renamed N&R Auto, a radiator shop located on West 48th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues in Manhattan. He also invested in real estate and other ventures, giving Lamarra an early understanding of entrepreneurship not simply as employment, but as the creation, ownership, and stewardship of assets.

Her mother, a Queens native, came from a large family whose extended legacy now includes more than 680 family members. She worked while also dedicating more than 16 years to humanitarian volunteer work supporting veterans. Her parents eventually divorced, but the examples they provided—entrepreneurship, independence, perseverance, family, and service—remained formative in Lamarra's development.

That foundation would eventually shape how Lamarra approached her own career.

After co-owning a public relations firm with partners and developing an extensive network of editors, producers, journalists, media professionals, and brand decision-makers, Lamarra launched GCPR Communications to build the firm the way she believed modern public relations should be practiced: senior-led, selective, relationship-driven, and accountable to outcomes rather than activity reports.

For more than a decade, Lamarra has worked at the intersection of communications, reputation, and business development. She has secured national media placements for clients, guided founders through reputation-sensitive moments, developed strategic positioning for emerging and established brands, and built long-term relationships across media and business communities.

Her work has also developed a distinctive niche advising legacy jewelers in New York City's Diamond District, helping businesses with deep histories modernize their positioning, communicate their value to new audiences, and expand into new markets without sacrificing the credibility and relationships they built over generations.

As her experience grew, so did her interest in the infrastructure behind the businesses she served.

Lamarra repeatedly saw the same problem across growing businesses: relationships, leads, vendors, campaigns, payments, follow-ups, and operations were being managed across disconnected systems, while owners were left carrying the responsibility of making everything work.

That experience became the foundation for SYNQ, a CRM and business operations platform launched in private beta in June 2026. SYNQ was developed from Lamarra's firsthand experience running a growing communications organization, managing clients and vendors, developing relationships, coordinating campaigns, overseeing operations, and balancing the demands of entrepreneurship and motherhood.

Rather than building another software product around what businesses were theoretically supposed to need, Lamarra approached SYNQ from the perspective of what she had actually experienced: the need for businesses to have their relationships, workflows, opportunities, communications, and operations work together in one connected environment.

In 2026, Lamarra also founded the GCPR Impact Foundation, the nonprofit arm of GCPR Communications focused on expanding opportunity, communications access, and community development.

As a single mother of two, Lamarra's perspective on entrepreneurship is deeply practical. She understands the difference between building something that looks successful and building something that can actually operate, grow, withstand pressure, and create lasting value.

Her professional philosophy is rooted in a simple principle: reputation is an asset, relationships are infrastructure, and the strongest businesses are built with intention.

Across GCPR Communications, SYNQ, and the GCPR Impact Foundation, the common thread is the same—building relationships that compound, creating systems that make businesses stronger, and turning experience into infrastructure that can serve people beyond a single campaign, client, or company.

Lamarra's story is ultimately one of building from what she inherited while creating something distinctly her own. From a Harlem-born father who understood ownership and investment, to a Queens-born mother whose life reflected work and service, she grew up with examples of both building assets and contributing to something larger than oneself.

Today, she is building a legacy at that intersection.

For Lamarra, entrepreneurship is not simply about starting businesses.

It is about building something worth keeping—and creating a legacy of her own.