News of Firms

Ketchum has formed a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Board to set the firm's short- and long-term DE&I goals and drive strategies to achieve them. The board includes six Ketchum employees as well as outside DE&I experts Dr. Quinetta Roberson, Fred J. Springer Endowed Chair in Business Leadership in the School of Business at Villanova University, and Dr. Tony Allen, executive vice president and provost at Delaware State University. "The composition of the advisory board reflects the firm's vision for DE&I globally, with board members representing both client-facing roles and key business functions," said Ketchum partner, president and CEO Barri Rafferty. The agency’s recent DE&I efforts include a partnership with Cook Ross to develop and deliver unconscious bias training for all employees; the LaunchPad gamified recruitment process that introduced a blind recruiting system; the establishment of the Kotcher-Ketchum Scholarship program for African American Boston University students; and the firm's recently announced commitment to pay equity globally.

French/West/Vaughan chairman & CEO Rick French played a key role in a “backyard concert” event last week that raised over $3.5 million for UCLA Health and Teen Cancer America, the national non-profit founded by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who. Hosted by Howie Mandel and Judd Apatow, the event’s lineup of performers included Daltrey, Van Morrison, Jewel, Don McLean and Ed Sheeran. In addition to working on the event with TCA board co-chair Rebecca Rothstein and Peter Bradley, Jr. of the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation, French also introduced McLean and Sheeran, who then performed a version of McLean’s “Vincent.” Along with the concert, there was an auction of such items as a Buddy Holly replica guitar autographed by Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Robert Plant and many others, and a refurbished Bally Pinball Wizard machine, circa 1975, built to coincide with the release of The Who’s rock opera film, “Tommy.”