Patrice Tanaka will wrap up a 35-year run in agency PR this month when she steps down at PadillaCRT.Tanaka, a Hawaii native who started her working days at a pineapple cannery on Oahu, has represented blue chip clients from Avon Products to Wyndham Hotels & Resorts on the PR front with a reputation for creative PR honed over decades.
She said she will turn her attention to a new practice, Joyful Planet, serving as busines and career coach for individuals and companies.
Tanaka led a management buyout after serving as GM of Chiat-Day's PR unit, Jessica Dee Communications, in the late 1980s, leading to the formation of Patrice Tanaka & Company in 1990 with 12 staffers.
PT & Company, as it was commonly known, had a successful 15-year run before merging with Carter Ryley Thomas in 2005. She took on a co-chair and creative role at CRT, including through its own merger with Padilla Speer Beardsley in 2013 to become PadillaCRT.
In 2011, Tanaka penned a memoir, "Becoming Ginger Rogers," writing about her turn to competitive ballroom dancing in the aftermath of personal tragedies that included the death of her husband of 23 years, Assad.
Tanaka garnered dozens of awards over her career from PRSA, New York Women in Communications and Asian Women in Business, among several others.
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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