This is EPR's founding-era profile of APCO Worldwide — the 1984 founding by Margery Kraus inside Arnold & Porter, the Grey Global Group era, and the September 2004 management buyout that returned the firm to independence. For the current state of the firm (2026), see Brad Staples Runs APCO, 1,200 People Across 80 Markets.
APCO Worldwide was founded in 1984 in Washington, D.C., by Margery Kraus as a consulting subsidiary inside Arnold & Porter — one of the largest law firms in the District. The name itself derives from the law firm. Kraus, a political scientist by training rather than a communications specialist, had previously helped start the Close Up Foundation, the civics-education program that has brought more than a million high school students and teachers to Washington since 1971.
The original concept was structural. Corporate clients of Arnold & Porter needed advisors who could handle the non-legal dimensions of regulatory, political, and reputational matters — the work that fell outside legal practice but adjacent to it. APCO was built to do that work. Kraus framed the early strategy years later as "business diplomacy" — using the tools of diplomacy to assist multinational businesses in their foreign operations.
The First Decade — Building Outside Convention
APCO's early operating choices were deliberately unconventional for the period:
1986: Opened a Brussels office — establishing the transatlantic public-affairs footprint that has remained a core strategic asset.
1988: Opened a Moscow office, years before most U.S. firms recognized post-Soviet reputational work as a category.
1991: Grey Global Group, the New York advertising holding company, acquired majority ownership of APCO from Arnold & Porter.
1993: Established what would become a long-running China practice, again ahead of the broader U.S. PR market's recognition of the category.
1995: Hired the firm's first internet practice lead — making APCO one of the earliest major public-affairs firms to commit dedicated internal capability to digital communications.
The strategic posture across the first two decades was global expansion and integrated service. APCO built a public-affairs practice that combined regulatory and policy work with corporate communications, crisis advisory, and market-entry work — a service model that competitors would not consolidate until much later.
The Grey Global Era (1991–2004)
For thirteen years, APCO operated as a Grey Global Group subsidiary. Kraus continued to run the firm operationally. The Grey ownership provided capital and back-office support but constrained APCO's strategic flexibility — the firm operated inside the structural priorities of an advertising holding company in an era when those priorities were defined more by media consolidation than by independent public-affairs growth.
The firm's continued global expansion through the late 1990s and early 2000s — additional offices in Latin America, broader Asia presence, deeper Brussels and London operations — was achieved inside the Grey structure but increasingly tested it.
The September 2004 Management Buyout
On September 28, 2004, APCO announced that Kraus had led a management buyout from Grey Global Group, returning the firm to independence. The transaction is the structural moment that defines APCO today. As Kraus described it years later: "We did a management buyout when everyone was selling their firms to major holding companies."
The decision ran against the prevailing direction of the PR industry through the 2000s. The holding companies — WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic Group — were absorbing the independent firms. APCO's choice to move in the opposite direction is the foundation of the firm's current category position. Independence — and later, employee ownership through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan — became the structural assets that competing holding-company subsidiaries cannot replicate.
What Came Next
The 2004 buyout set the trajectory for APCO's next two decades. The transition to employee ownership, the appointment of Brad Staples as CEO effective January 2015, the buildout of practice areas across geopolitical risk, ESG, healthcare, and technology policy, the launch of the Champion Brand Index and APCO Insight as a proprietary research practice, and the eventual scaling to 1,200+ employees across 80+ markets — all flow from the moment Kraus took the firm back from Grey Global.
When was APCO founded? 1984, in Washington, D.C., by Margery Kraus, as a consulting subsidiary of the law firm Arnold & Porter.
Where does the name APCO come from? The name is derived from the law firm Arnold & Porter, where APCO was founded as a consulting subsidiary.
Who owned APCO before the 2004 buyout? Grey Global Group, a New York advertising holding company, acquired majority ownership of APCO from Arnold & Porter in 1991. APCO operated as a Grey Global subsidiary for thirteen years.
What was the 2004 management buyout? On September 28, 2004, Margery Kraus led a management buyout that returned APCO to independence from Grey Global Group. The decision moved against the prevailing direction of the PR industry, which was consolidating into the major holding companies.
What is APCO today? For the current state of the firm — Brad Staples as CEO since January 2015, more than 1,200 employees across 80+ markets, ~$225M revenue — see EPR's current APCO profile.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
