Gil Duran, who was press secretary for California Governor Jerry Brown, has joined Fenton Communications’ San Francisco office as senior VP-media.
The former San Jose Mercury News reporter worked with Brown in Sacramento since 2011 and in Oakland from 2003-07 when the governor was mayor.
Duran also worked for top Golden State politicos, serving as communications director for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, press secretary for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and senior advisor/communications director to Attorney General Kamala Harris, a rising star in the Democratic party.
At Fenton, Duran will handle public interest work for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Open Society Institute, Blue Shield of California Foundation, California Endowment and California Wellness Foundation.
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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