PROFILE SNAPSHOT
Founded: 1979
Founder: Ken Makovsky (Chairman & CEO)
President: Catherine Fink
Headquarters: New York City (additional office in Washington, D.C.)
Category: Integrated Communications / Financial PR / Healthcare PR
Ownership: Independent, family-owned
Network affiliation: IPREX (founding member)
Makovsky is one of the longest-running independent integrated communications firms in the United States. Founded in 1979 by Ken Makovsky, the family-owned firm has stayed independent through 45-plus years of industry consolidation — building a deep specialization in regulated industries where most generalist agencies cannot operate at the same depth.
Headquartered in New York City with an additional office in Washington, D.C., Makovsky has represented approximately 1,000 clients over its history and won nearly 300 industry awards.
The Founder: Ken Makovsky
Ken Makovsky founded the firm in 1979 after earning his Juris Doctor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. He bypassed a career in law to focus on advocacy in the court of public opinion — a framing that has shaped the firm's positioning across its entire history. Before founding the firm, Makovsky was Senior Vice President and Deputy General Manager of the New York office of Harshe-Rotman & Druck.
Makovsky is a member of the PRSA College of Fellows, the Arthur W. Page Society, and serves on the advisory committee of the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. Industry recognition includes the SABRE Individual Achievement Award, the PRSA John Hill Award for Outstanding Achievement, the Communications Executive of the Year by the American Business Awards, and selection as one of the "Top Ten CEO Bloggers" by Chief Executive magazine. His blog "My Three Cents" was carried for five years by Forbes and republished in Businessweek.
Founding IPREX
Ken Makovsky founded and served as past president of IPREX — the global corporation of independent public relations firms operating across 56 cities and more than 30 countries. IPREX gives Makovsky and other independent agencies a structured way to serve international clients without ceding equity to a holding company. It is one of the two major independent-agency networks globally, alongside The Public Relations Global Network.
The founding of IPREX reflects the strategic thesis behind Makovsky as a firm: that independence is structurally defensible if you build the infrastructure to support it.
Specialization in Regulated Industries
Makovsky's practice areas have stayed tightly focused throughout the firm's history. Core verticals:
Financial and professional services — investor relations, asset management, banking, insurance, professional services firms.
Healthcare and life sciences — biotech, pharma, medical devices, healthcare innovation. In November 2023, Makovsky co-hosted a dialogue with Cure, the New York City healthcare innovation campus, on accelerating the city's growth as a life sciences hub.
Technology — enterprise tech, B2B SaaS, advanced technology platforms.
Energy — including consumer energy markets and energy transition.
Public affairs and crisis communications — corporate reputation work in regulated industries where stakeholder management is the discipline.
The firm's depth in regulated industries is the moat. Generalist agencies struggle to operate in financial services or healthcare without the regulatory fluency Makovsky has built across four-plus decades.
Current Leadership
Ken Makovsky serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Catherine Fink serves as President — Fink joined Makovsky from Porter Novelli, where she was an Executive Vice President. Senior leadership has included Andrew Goldberg, who joined as EVP and head of Makovsky Corporate Advisors after senior roles at Burson-Marsteller, and Doug Hesney, EVP for financial and professional services.
Client Roster
Over its history, Makovsky has represented IBM, Ernst & Young, Citibank, Mutual of New York (MONY), Security Pacific Bank, Dun & Bradstreet, Schering-Plough, Booz Allen Hamilton, Chase Manhattan Bank, EDS, and many others — a roster heavily weighted toward financial services, healthcare, and Fortune 500 corporate clients.
Industry Recognition
Makovsky has been recognized by O'Dwyer's as one of the top independent PR firms in the United States, ranked among the top 25 for financial and B2B communications, and named "Business-to-Business Marketing Agency" of note in multiple industry rankings. Ken Makovsky has been individually named PR All-Star, PR Professional of the Year, and the top business-to-business counselor in the public relations industry.
The Independence Story
What makes Makovsky structurally interesting is not the client list or the awards — it is the persistence. The firm has stayed independent and family-owned through four-plus decades during which the rest of the PR industry consolidated dramatically. WPP rolled up Hill+Knowlton, BCW, Burson, and others. Omnicom built FleishmanHillard and Ketchum. Publicis took MSL. IPG acquired Weber Shandwick and Golin.
Makovsky stayed independent. That choice has structural implications: deeper specialization, longer client relationships, and the kind of senior-led practice that holding-company economics make difficult to sustain. It is one of the case studies for what independence looks like in the modern PR industry.
