Thomas Walek leaves Peppercomm, IPG Growth, and More…
Thomas Walek leaves Peppercomm
Walek, who sold his agency to Peppercomm in 2013, recently announced his departure from the firm and opened a new boutique agency specializing in asset management, fintech, capital markets, and professional services. The new Peak Strategies, based in Manhattan, already has two new clients, global industry representative, Alternative Investment Management Association, and Hathersage, a macro investment management company.
Prior to Peppercomm, Walek started his own firm, Walek & Associates based in Boulder, Colorado in 1998 specializing in capital markets, investor relations, and financial services. Before that, he was MD of WeiserWalek in Chicago and the asst. bureau chief at Commodity News Services.
FleishmanHillard loses 13 senior execs since November
In November 2015, Dave Senay left FH as CEO after 32 years with the company. That started a mass exodus of FleishmanHillard leadership including Global CMO, Stephanie Marchesi; Global Brand Marketing Practice Leader, Bill Power; Chief Content Officer, Shawn Amos; Sr. partner, GM, and America’s co-lead of the tech sector, Danielle Wushcke; and nine others.
The new CEO, John Saunders said he would continue cost-cutting and other improvements started by Senay before he left the company. Saunders said, “Thanks to tough decisions that were made, we are now in the position that we can make even more investments and support and ensure that our staff has all the tools and resources they need to do a stellar job for our clients.” He continued by saying March 2016 was the best month in agency history.
Some, still at FH feel the company isn’t focused on giving a damn about clients.
Monterisi leaves Porter Novelli, Erin Osher will fill NY Office Managing Director Spot
Erin Osher, Exec. VP and Deputy Director for the New York office of Porter Novelli will fill the top leadership spot in New York while PN searches for someone on a permanent basis. In speaking about the opportunity, Osher said, “I think we’re focused first on taking amazing care of our clients, making sure our staff and colleagues are getting awesome opportunities to learn, and then focusing on growth… I see our growth areas in corporate reputation, food, health, and wellness.”
Darlàn Monterisi had been with PN since 2011 and serving as managing director since 2013. Monterisi begins the new position on May 9th as Sr. VP of corp communications at the New York headquarters of CA Technologies.
Andy Polansky reports Q1 Growth for Interpublic
Polansky, CEO of Weber Shandwick – one of the main PR companies operating as a subsidiary of Interpublic Group (IPG) reported that IPG’s Constituency Management Group hit mid-single-digit growth on both as-reported and organic basis during 2016 Q1. “Organic” growth deals with change without factoring in the impact of disposals, acquisitions or currency changes.
Polansky said WS had high-single-digit growth for both as-reported and organic during Q1, adding to double-digit growth in 2015 Q4. He noted, “Weber and Golin continue to generate strong growth in relation to industry competitors.”
In addition to WS and Golin, CMG, which contains most of the PR firms held by IPG, showed 3.2% organic growth for Q1 amounting to $340.4 million.
Polansky said, “We do see some macro uncertainty in markets such as China, Brazil, and some markets in Europe. But overall, we continue to be optimistic about our business and the sector more generally.”
