Updated June 2026. By EPR Editorial Team.
Part of New York PR Firms · PR Agency Profiles Directory · Consumer Brands · Food & Beverage
HUNTER is one of the largest consumer-led public relations and integrated communications agencies in the United States, operating as the consumer flagship inside the Stagwell network. Founded in 1989 in New York, the firm employs approximately 400 people across four offices — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London — and posted $67 million in 2024 net fees, the strongest single-year revenue in its history and its fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth. Grace Leong is Chief Executive Officer. The C-suite is all-female and the executive leadership team is approximately 90% female. HUNTER is owned by Stagwell Inc. (NASDAQ: STGW), the marketing holding company led by Mark Penn. In January 2025, Stagwell integrated sister agency KWT Global under the HUNTER banner.
The Founding and the Three Decades of Consumer Work
HUNTER was founded as Hunter Public Relations in 1989 in New York. The firm built its reputation across three and a half decades on food, beverage, beauty, fashion, lifestyle, home, and retail brand work, anchored by signature long-term client relationships. The most-cited of these is TABASCO Brand Pepper Sauce, a HUNTER client since the agency's founding 36 years ago — one of the longest continuous agency-of-record relationships in the United States consumer-PR category. The TABASCO continuity has been used by HUNTER as proof of the firm's consumer-brand stewardship discipline.
The MDC and Stagwell Eras
MDC Partners acquired a majority stake in HUNTER in 2014, bringing the firm into the MDC roster of marketing and communications agencies. In 2021, MDC Partners completed its merger with Stagwell to form Stagwell Inc., the publicly traded marketing holding company that trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker STGW. The Stagwell network spans communications, performance media, creative, research, and technology, and HUNTER sits inside it as the consumer-led communications flagship.
The KWT Global Integration
On January 29, 2025, Stagwell announced that HUNTER and KWT Global — both Stagwell-owned communications firms — would integrate under the HUNTER banner. KWT Global, the firm previously known as Kwittken, had built a corporate, B2B, financial-services, and brand-strategy practice with a particular footprint in London. The integration transformed HUNTER from a primarily consumer agency into a full-service global consultancy spanning consumer, corporate, crisis, financial services, travel and hospitality, and B2B.
The combined leadership represents one of the few all-female C-suites among large-network PR firms. Grace Leong continued as Chief Executive Officer. Former KWT Global CEO Gabrielle Zucker became Global Chief Client Officer. Samantha Turtle, who previously led HUNTER's Los Angeles office and Entertainment Marketing practice, was named Chief Operating Officer. Gigi García Russo serves as Chief Transformation Officer.
The Roster
HUNTER's pre-integration roster anchored on TABASCO, Amazon, Reckitt, Benjamin Moore, Vera Bradley, and Danone North America. The KWT integration added Tanger, Fairmont, PODS, Technogym, Tommy John, IRONMAN, Lovesac, L'Oréal, Liquid I.V., Experian, and Laurel Road — expanding the combined book deeply into travel and hospitality, financial services, health and wellness, and luxury.
Service Offering
The integrated firm delivers public relations, social media, influencer and talent engagement, content production, experiential marketing, corporate reputation, crisis communications, financial-services communications, B2B communications, and entertainment marketing. The Los Angeles Entertainment Marketing practice — historically the connective tissue between HUNTER's consumer-brand work and Hollywood talent partnerships — remains a distinguishing capability.
Position in the Category
HUNTER sits at the top of the consumer-led mid-market communications category in the United States, alongside Coyne PR, DeVries Global, Edelman's consumer practice, Ketchum's consumer practice, Zeno Group, and the consumer divisions of the legacy holding-company networks. Among Stagwell-network communications firms, HUNTER is the consumer flagship, with Allison Worldwide and Team Epiphany operating adjacent inside the network.
The differentiators are the 36-year TABASCO continuity, the all-female C-suite and 90%-female executive leadership team (a structural outlier among large-network PR firms), the financial discipline reflected in five consecutive years of double-digit growth, and the post-2025 capability set that now spans consumer, corporate, crisis, B2B, and financial services under a single brand.
Reputation Arc
HUNTER's reputation arc through the past decade has been one of steady consumer-brand stewardship and methodical expansion rather than controversy. The most-reported moments are the 2014 MDC acquisition, the 2021 Stagwell formation, the 2025 KWT Global integration, and the all-female leadership composition — recognized by industry trade press across PRovoke Media, PR Week, and Ad Age. Awards include Mid-Sized Agency of the Year, Consumer Agency of the Year, and Best Place to Work recognitions across PRovoke Media and the PR Council.
Read next: PR Agency Profiles Directory · PR Industry Leaders · Coyne PR Profile · DeVries Global Profile · Allison Worldwide Profile
