EDELMAN NAMES HARRINGTON COO
Matt Harrington, a 22-year Edelman veteran, assumes the COO post, a new position of the $614M independent shop on July 1.
Harrington |
The former U.S. chief expands his responsibilities to include Europe/Middle East/Asia-Pacific, Canada/Latin America, human resources, legal and IT duties. Harrington reports to Richard Edelman, CEO, who told O'Dwyer's that Harrington is a “decent and intelligent manager who has earned the trust of the Edelman family.”
Edelman is shifting China chief Mark Hass, former CEO of Manning, Selvage & Lee, to the U.S. president/CEO post. He joined Edelman in 2010, after serving at the helm of the Publicis unit for five years. Edelman praised Hass' strong corporate and marketing experience.
“He doubled our China business and is uniquely qualified for the U.S. position,” said Edelman.
The firm recorded $383M in U.S. revenues during the past year.
Tom Mattia, who retired from the senior VP global PA and communications post at Coca-Cola in 2009, replaces Hass in China.
Mattia, who recently stepped down as Yale University's chief communications officer, held top PR posts at Ford, IBM and EDS. “He’s been our client twice at Yale and EDS,” noted Edelman.
During a five-year stint at Hill & Knowlton, Mattia ran its Asia operation.
IRS REVIEWS IMAGE PACT
The IRS is in the final stages of reviewing a multimillion-dollar PR contract for communications support.
Porter Novelli is the four-year incumbent, earning more than $17M for the marketing communications work supporting the federal agency's outreach and public education efforts.
The Wall Street Journal Feb. 17 polled tax interest groups as well as newly minted Edelman COO Matt Harrington on the image of the IRS, tapping a vein of sarcasm.
“Advancing the interests of the North Korean leadership at the moment would be harder than the IRS,” Harrington told the Journal.
Before Porter Novelli, Weber Shandwick and sister ad shop Foote, Cone & Belding in 2002 won a $20M-ayear communications pact with the IRS. |
