What’s happening at MSLGROUP, Carmichael Lynch, W2O, and MDC Partners

MSLGROUP makes major changes

Within the last few days and weeks, MSLGROUP saw at least five executives leave the agency, top of the list is Andrew Silver who has been the managing director of their New York office for nearly two years. Silver worked in a similar position at Ogilvy PR and Edelman – as well as other positions at Edelman. There is no news yet on where Silver will be working next, start a firm, or take a break.

Also leaving MSL are, Maury Shapiro, North American CFO – now at Cohn & Wolfe, Tara Lilien, Sr. VP of Human Resources for North America, Tracy Naden, Sr. VP covering the Proctor & Gamble health efforts, and Jessica Bayer, Talent Acquisition Vice President.

But this may not be the end, MSL’s parent company, Publicis Groupe plans for attrition and pay freezes moving forward.

Two new managing partners named at Carmichael Lynch

Carmichael Lynch promoted from within the ranks, moving Julie Batliner and Marty Senn into managing partner roles. Up til this promotion, Batliner has been in CL’s PR division – Spong – working as president, managing director, and senior partner. Before that, she was Spong’s managing principal and chief client relations officer. She’s been with CL since 2005 and before that she worked at Fleishman-Hillard International Communications.

Senn has been with CL for less than five years, starting as the executive creative director, and moving after three years from that position to chief creative officer in December 2015. Prior to CL, he was at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Cutwater, and Fallon London – all in the creative area of the business.

W2O faces gender discrimination lawsuit

Recently there have been several gender discrimination lawsuits in the PR and marketing industries. Well, now W2O, the parent company of WCG just got added to that list. Lynn Fox joined WCG after her boutique firm, Fox Communications, was acquired by them. She’s been working as the managing director at WCG in their technology practice focusing on media and engagement.

She was laid off late in March, filing her suit against W2O late in July alleging gender discrimination against her and others, and that when she tried to bring the matter to the attention of W2O, things got worse. She further alleges that she was terminated for the same reasons. In the suit, she claims she “experienced and heard commentary that reflected a bias toward women in general and working mothers specifically … subjected to harassing behavior by a male superior.”

W2O’s human resources department only response has been they have not yet been served with the complaint, so they cannot comment.

Former MDC Partners’ CEO joins Echelon Wealth Partners – no longer PR-bound

Miles Nadal left MDC Partners last year after facing an SEC investigation that found he had been reimbursement for excessive business costs. He stepped down as MDC’s CEO and agreed to repay $20 million. But that really couldn’t have been much of a hardship, since he sold shares in MDC since 2014 worth over $180 million. So he’s sitting pretty in Canada and building a new career as a financial partner with Echelon – a company claiming to have over $4 billion under management for their investors.

In the meantime, MDC struggles, even seeing a 30% drop in their share prices late in July when they announced Q2 results, under what analysts projected. MDC Partners is a holding company specializing in many types of communications, marketing, and PR firms. PR firms under their umbrella include Hunter PR, Kwittken, Allison+Partners, and Sloane & Company.