News from Wye Communications, Makovsky, Widmeyer Communications, and London PR
Erica Swerdlow Joins Wye Communications
Wye Communications, a new PR firm founded jointly by Finn Partners and Stagwell Group, just brought in Erica Swerdlow as their first CEO. She reports to Stagwell partner Jay Leveton and works from the Chicago office as of January 8th where she’ll be in charge of six staff members so far. Stagwell holds the controlling interest in Wye, but it just launched this month officially. They specialize in “data intelligence, scalable talent, and operational excellence,” working with clients in the B2B, consumer, and transformational tech organization sectors.
Swerdlow left Burson-Marsteller as an executive vice president in the Midwest market where she was in charge of key client work and US business development and growth. Before 2010 (when she started at Burson-Marsteller), she founded EBS Public Relations, a high-tech PR firm in 1993 and later sold it in 2000 to Omnicom when it was merged with Porter Novelli’s Chicago branch. While there she was in charge of the tech practice.
Susan Goldstein Leaves Ruder Finn to Join Makovsky PR
The Makovsky PR office added a partner, chief strategy officer, and managing director of their healthcare practice all in one swoop with Susan Goldstein. As of January she’s in charge of growth and strategy in that sector and working in the New York office reporting to Ken Makovsky, CEO. The strategy position is new for the firm, but she replaces SVPs Alexandra Peterson and Tom Jones who jointly led the healthcare practice. She left Ruder Finn after nine years with them and a similar job at RF. Before that, she worked Ogilvy PR and Chandler Chicco Agency.
Widmeyer Gains New VP in Heather Foster
Widmeyer Communications, a Finn Partners company, specializes in public policy issues in the areas of health care, education, energy, and workforce development, and they just hired Heather Foster as a VP in their education division at the DC office. She’ll be working with public policy and advocacy on PK-12 education as well as with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Foster brings a wealth of experience from her prior work with the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and as a White House advisor in the Public Engagement area. She also served as a US Department of Education outreach advisor.
London PR Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary by Adding Midlands Division
London-based (in Nottingham’s Creative Quarter) London PR – yes that’s the firm name, has built a strong reputation focusing their efforts in London for 10 years. But they decided that it’s time to expand and are opening an East Midlands division. They are doing through NottsPR.com, established to exclusively work with East Midlands clients. They believe this will also bring more staffers to be employed by the agency beginning this year.
Steve McComish, founder of London PR, was named in the UK edition of PR Week as one of the 100 most influential PR people in the UK. McComish founded the firm in 2007 after leaving his career as a journalist, including six years at the Daily Mirror’s new desk.
