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| Sylvia Desrochers |
Big Time PR is closing its doors and owner Sylvia Desrochers, along with her colleagues Tiffany Wager and Karen Tran Wood, are moving over to MPRM Communications. Desrochers will become a member of MPRM’s executive team as a senior vice president, charged with overseeing the company’s film team as well as working across the agency with corporate and television clients. Wagner, who has been at Big Time PR since its founding in 2008, will join MPRM as a senior consultant, focused on corporate clients. Tran Wood moves over as an account executive to work on film and awards campaigns. Big Time clients that will be moving over to MPRM include John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, American Crime) and his NO Studios arts space, USC Libraries Scripter Awards and Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television.
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| Lee-Ann Germinder (l.) receives award from Ken Makovsky. |
PRSA-NY has presented the first Makovsky Excellence in Mentoring Award to Lea-Ann Germinder, president and founder of Germinder + Associates, Inc. Formerly known as the Dorf Award, the award recognizes individuals who foster the careers of PR professionals. Candidates for the awards must show leadership in guiding and inspiring the careers of entry-level and other young PR pros, demonstrate the highest standards of the profession while serving as a mentor, and offer service to young professionals beyond the scope of their professional duties. Muck Rack CEO Natan Edelsburg, who nominated Germinder for the award, said that “her mentorship had a huge impact on my career… She treated me as an equal, made me feel wanted and that the ideas I had could make a difference.”
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Wunderlich Kaplan Communications has opened an office in Dubai, and will also be opening a location in Saudi Arabia later this month. As part of the agency’s Middle East launch, it has brought on Noor Taher, who previously held digital marketing positions at TBWA/Raad, J. Walter Thompson Worldwide and Giorgio Armani, as head of digital and content. Taher will work to take brands and celebrities through the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia via its General Entertainment Authority. WKC says that it has already established relationships with key decision makers in some of the largest retail, hospitality and F&B groups in the Middle East. The agency has also announced plans to open offices in Miami and Boston.
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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