Kass Sells, who led the Microsoft account at WPP's Wunderman, has moved to Waggener Edstrom Communications in Seattle as North American president.
Sells was managing director of Wunderman's Seattle outpost in addition to global client lead for Team Microsoft.
At WaggEd, Microsoft's longtime PR firm, he reports to CEO Melissa Waggener Zorkin and takes over management and new business for the firm's main region.
“Kass and I are very much aligned on where we see opportunities to continue expanding our agency offering for current and prospective clients, and talent acquisition will be a key focus of ours over the coming months,” Zorkin said.
WaggEd has picked up business from Allrecipes, Amgen Foundation, Lucid and Invuity in the first half of this year, branching out from its core tech into consumer and healthcare, among other sectors.
Blue chip clients of the firm include Volvo, Honeywell and T-Mobile, in addition to Microsoft.
Kass, who also handled T-Mobile at Wunderman, was COO at DraftFCB West and president of FCB Seattle. Earlier posts included DDB and TBWA Chiat Day.
DJE Holdings, parent of Edelman and Zeno, launches RUTH as an independent shop named after Ruth Edelman, mental health advocate, wife and longtime business partner of Dan Edelman.
New York City PR firms make up the largest slice of O'Dwyer's 147 firm overall ranking with 33 of 40 in the New York/New Jersey area either calling Manhattan their home or having a presence there.
Subject Matter+Kivvit, which joined forces in May, has rebranded as Avoq, an integrated shop with more than 200 professionals in Washington, New York, Asbury Park (NJ), Miami and Chicago.
While PR pros stationed at in-house comms. teams and those working for agencies share many of the same objectives, they also have markedly different top priorities, according to a recent report.
Edelman is cutting 240 employees or about four percent of its workforce to cope with the cooling down of the PR sector, according to a memo from CEO Richard Edelman.
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