Gershon Kekst, founder and chairman emeritus of corporate, financial and M&A communications advisory giant Kekst and Company, died on March 17 in New York. He was 82.

Gershon KekstGershon Kekst

Founded in 1970, Kekst’s agency became a highly-sought communications advisor among senior management and boards of directors of private institutions and publicly-traded companies. Headquartered in New York— and later, opening a second outpost in San Francisco — the agency under Kekst’s leadership was an industry leader in advising companies on mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and restructurings and litigation support, as well as crisis communications, media relations and corporate governance issues. The firm also specialized in advising private equity firms and hedge funds.

Kekst played a key role in some of the largest corporate transactions in U.S. history, including KKR’s takeover of RJR-Nabisco, Chrysler Corp.’s merger with Daimler-Benz AG, Walt Disney’s purchase of Capital Cities/ABC, Ron Perelman’s buyout of Revlon, Time Inc.’s merger with Warner Communications and McGraw Hill’s successful defense of an unsolicited bid from American Express.

In recent years, the agency repped DuPont in its merger with Dow Chemical Co., Charter Communications’ purchase of Time Warner Cable, the integration of American Airlines with US Airways and the Yum Brands' spin-off of its China business, which resulted in two NYSE listed companies. The agency has also fielded high-profile crisis cases such as Ohio State University’s memorabilia-for-cash football player scandal and Penn State’s probe into sex abuse by the former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

The agency was sold to French conglomerate Publicis Groupe in 2008 for an undisclosed amount. In a statement, Publicis outgoing CEO Maurice Lévy, who knew Mr. Kekst since the 1980s, referred to him as “one of the most admired advisors for Wall Street firms,” who “pioneered new avenues of PR and created the concept of strategic communication as we know it today.”

Mr. Kekst stepped down as Kekst CEO in 2010. Jeremy Fielding, who now serves as Kekst president and CEO, in a statement said that “Gershon left an indelible mark in the world of business, creating the modern day field of strategic and financial communications. In addition to pioneering M&A communications, he also believed the firm could help its clients with other challenging communications situations, resulting in our firm now having deep expertise in other critical areas including restructuring and bankruptcies, crisis communications, litigation support, as well as governance and activism issues important to senior management."

The son of a Hebrew school teacher, Gershon Kekst was born and raised in Salem, MA. He attended the University of Maryland, where he majored in psychology and contributed to the school newspaper and developed an interest in radio. 

Before founding the agency that would bear his name, Kekst was stationed at Ruder Finn (then Ruder & Finn), which he joined in 1959 and worked alongside co-founder William Ruder, who would become his mentor. Kekst eventually led the agency's West Coast operations.

Kekst was a prominent figure among non-profits and Jewish organizations, serving as chairman of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, for nine years and chairman of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America for 18 years. He was also a trustee of Brandeis University and served on the boards of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting-WNET Thirteen, the Montefiore Medical Center and the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He also was an honorary VP of the American Jewish Committee and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Gershon Kekst is survived by a wife, Carol Schapiro Kekst, sons David and Joseph, and grandchildren.