News From Jared Kushner, 5WPR, Finn Partners, Weber Shandwick, Ketchum, Golin
Jared Kushner Hires Josh Raffel Away From Blumhouse Productions
Josh Raffel has been working as the PR chief at Blumhouse, a production company that produced movies such as The Purge, Insidious, and Paranormal Activity. Raffel also has extensive experience working for Matt Hiltzik at Hiltzik Strategies in his public affairs efforts. Hiltzik’s agency helped in the US Senate race of Hillary Clinton. Ivanka’s husband and White House senior advisor Jared Kushner hired Raffel to help Steve Mnuchin in the Office of American Innovation at the White House. Some have referred to the OAI as a political Suicide Squad operation, or the SWAT Team.
Though it’s not yet clear how the OAI will do, a spokesperson for the Trump White House said recently: “The OAI will make recommendations to the President on policies and plans that improve Government operations and services, improve the quality of life for Americans now and in the future, and spur job creation.” It’s not as easy as making a request for something and presto-chango, it’s done.
Sharestates Makes 5WPR their PR AOR
Sharestates.com (pronounced Share Estates) is an online platform for real estate crowdfunding, and they recently brought 5WPR on board as their public relations representative. Sharestates provides real estate debt and equity investment opportunities for properties mainly in the New York and New Jersey metro areas. Investors can invest $1,000 (or more) in their first five investment properties and thereafter $5,000 minimum per property.
The purpose of Sharestates according to their CEO, Allen Shayanfekr, is to make investing in real estate easier for the smaller investors. Ronn Torossian, founder and CEO of 5WPR, said: “Take a look at their platform, their offerings, and their executive leadership – this is a company that gets it. They are the biggest real estate crowdfunding platform you’ve never heard of, until now.”
Ying Communications Joins Finn Partners in Asia Expansion
Ying Communications is a B2B marketing and PR firm that specializes in the tech sector and is based in Singapore. Finn Partners and its affiliated agency, True Worth Consultants, acquired Ying via their holding company. The official name of the new agency will be Ying Communications, a Finn Partners Company, and True Worth Consultants, A Finn Partners Company. In recent years, Finn Partners has focused much of their acquisitions on tech specialty firms including Johnson King in the UK, and the Horn Group based in San Francisco. Allan Tan and Yin Ching Yeap, founders of Ying, will be the managing partners of the new firm and they will report to one of Finn’s founding managers (leading the West Coast operations), Howard Solomon.
Clariant SA Chooses Weber Shandwick (South Africa) as Their PR Representatives
Clariant South Africa (CSA) just added Weber Shandwick South Africa (WSSA) as their agency of record for PR purposes. CSA is a subsidiary of Clariant, headquartered in Switzerland and specializing in global chemical operations. WSSA will offer PR counsel as well as communications work such as crisis communication, driving awareness, and thought leadership.
Genealogists Find Link Between US-based Pro-Russian Advocacy and White House Staffer
When reports claimed White House staffer Ezra Cohen-Watnick gave Devin Nunes (Republican) showing the Trump transition team secret intelligence reports, it sparked an interest for American genealogists Randol Schoenberg and Renee Stern Steinig. So, they began searching the family tree of Cohen-Watnick.
In the process, they came across Vicki Fraser’s oral testimony. Vicki Fraser is Rebecca Miller’s mother, and Miller is Cohen-Watnick’s wife. In the 2014 testimony, she says that Rebecca “works for Ketchum, a PR and marketing firm in Washington, D.C.” She also said that Rebecca’s “biggest challenge” at her job is “to try to make Russia look better, which is particularly difficult when they’re invading other countries and when Putin is somewhat out of control.”
Golin Singapore Taking Over Twitter’s PR and Media Work
Twitter is saying goodbye to Ogilvy in the region and switching to Golin Singapore for marketing and paying through an annual retainer. Prior to the change, Ogilvy was asked to submit to the RFP for them to continue their contract with the company – they’ve repped Twitter in the region since early in 2014. That’s when Twitter began their APAC communications.
Dickson Seow, Twitter Asia Pacific’s communications director, said: “I want to thank them for all of their creativity and hard work over the past three years to tell the Twitter story to consumers, partners, and advertisers and get us to where we are today. Twitter is the social soundtrack to life, and Ogilvy was there every step of the way with us, so we are immensely thankful for their support,” Also mentioning that Ogilvy and Twitter had major accomplishments in their work together including national elections (including #GE2015), to record-setting K-pop (#LoveBTS) and #AlDub entertainment activations, to multiple Winter and Summer Olympics (#JosephSchoolingWinsGold), to major cultural moments like #SG50 and much much more.
