Mark McCall
Mark McCall

FTI Consulting's strategic communications unit posted a 31.1 percent jump in Q3 revenues to $69.4M, driven by robust demand for its corporate reputation and PA services. Operating income for the segment surged 178.4 percent to $14.2M.

Mark McCall, who heads the stratcomm business, said momentum grew during the quarter as businesses throughout the world opened up as the COVID-19 pandemic subsided.

"We continued to expand our global network beyond our London, EU and US base into Australia, Asia and Latin America as clients tried to figure out supply chain and regulatory issues," he told O'Dwyer's.

McCall said his unit stepped up its involvement with other FTI segments, especially in the areas of ESG and business transformation matters.

On the people front, the stratcomm segment hired managing directors in Washington (Shawn Bennett, Ed Goodwin and John Steitz), New York (Doug Cooper), London (Nikita Sood) and China (Renfeng Zhao and Angela Yu).

It also added senior advisors in Australia (Neil Roberts, James Bowie) and DC (Allyson Schwartz).

For the nine-month period, stratcomm revenues were up 17.6 percent to $197.8M. Income jumped 65.9 percent to $35.5M.

Segment headcount rose 6.1 percent to 817 people for the year.

FTI CEO Steven Gunby raised overall guidance for 2021 due to what he called the "powerful results" achieved by his company during a period when "clients faced their most significant challenges and opportunities."