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| Fern Lazar |
FINN Partners managing partner and global health practice leader Fern Lazar is elected to the Cancer Research Institute’s board of trustees. Lazar came to FINN Partners in 2019 following FINN’s acquisition of her consultancy, Lazar Partners. She has advised leaders on a broad range of investor, corporate and product issues in health. “Her expertise in health communications and deep knowledge surrounding the business of health can only aid the pursuit of our mission to save more lives by fueling the discovery and development of powerful immunotherapies for all cancers. Fern is a great addition to the board,” said Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, PhD, CRI’s chief executive officer and director of scientific affairs. Established in 1953, the CRI is a nonprofit dedicated to the discovery and development of powerful immunotherapies for all cancers.
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160over90, part of the Endeavor network, acquires London-based creative brand experience agency XYZ. XYZ managing director Will Mould and executive creative director Paul Stanway will join 160over90 as senior VPs. XYZ’s 35 full-time employees will now operate as part of 160over90, joining the agency’s existing London-based team of approximately 60 full-time employees. Co-founded by Mould and Stanway in 2013, XYZ offers creative strategy, experience design, content creation, live event production, and production management. “By bringing Will, Paul and the XYZ team into the fold, we not only strengthen our ability to deliver dynamic, must-see campaigns on a global scale, but also further our mission to forge stronger human connections on behalf of our clients,” said 160over90 president Ed Horne.
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Cision launches a monitoring, insights and outreach platform, CisionOne, in the UK, with plans to launch it in additional markets, including the US., over the next 12 months. The company says that CisionOne Monitoring, powered by its proprietary artificial intelligence models, can identify the most relevant news, trends and conversations across all media channels, surfacing potentially harmful content and uncovering the intent behind individual mentions, in real-time. "CisionOne is designed to give communicators real-time access to powerful insights that allow them to confidently make decisions that have a material impact on the valuations of the brands and organisations they steward," said Cision Comms Cloud president Webster.
Precision Strategies, an integrated strategy and marketing agency with offices in Washington and New York, acquires Firehouse Strategies, a DC-based public affairs firm... AVENIR GLOBAL acquires London-based Thinks Insight & Strategy... Good Company, which bills itself as a “cultural engineering firm,” is launched by DJ Hardy, a veteran of Johannesburg-based communications consultancy arxna and M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment and Casey Stickles, who has worked at 5WPR, Rubenstein and MWW.
PSC (Princeton Strategic Communications) acquires Nonprofit Partners... CG Life launches 24/364, a cultural brand platform intended to drive awareness, connection and action aimed at keeping rare disease at the forefront of the health and social conversation... Interluxe Group, which focuses on brand experiences and in-person activations; Quinn, a strategic communications agency; and media and digital agency North & Warren are uniting under the Interluxe Group banner.
KITH, which provides corporate reputation and crisis preparation services, is now owned by CEO Stephanie Craig, who has been with the firm since 2021... The Marketing Cloud, a part of Stagwell, introduces several expansions to Agent Cloud, the platform it launched in October 2025 to simplify access to its AI tools and marketing assistants.... Notified launches its AI Press Release Optimizer.
V2 Communications launches its AI Visibility Solution and Earned Media at Scale, two service offerings designed to help companies increase visibility and credibility in generative search... The Public Relations Global Network brings on Greenough Communications as its Boston member agency... DBC is relaunching The DBC Industry Calendar as a free site to help communicators more easily discover relevant events and awards in the cluttered event landscape driven by the growth of webinars and online events. 
PAN releases new original research showing that a significant share of B2B citations surfaced by ChatGPT are inaccurate, misattributed or entirely fabricated, introducing a new credibility risk for brands... REQ, which has offices in DC and San Diego, opens in Phoenix... Notified introduces Market Intelligence, an addition to its all-in-one IR Hub, which gives IR teams a more streamlined way to prepare for earnings calls.
