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| Andrew Bates |
Wolfpack Strategies, a DC-based strategic communications firm, is launched by Andrew Bates, who most recently served as senior deputy press secretary in the Biden White House. Bates was also director of rapid response for Biden’s 2020 campaign, and a staffer on the Clinton and Obama campaigns. Bates told Axios that his firm will offer crisis communications, press relations, strategic messaging and reputation management, with the aim of helping clients simplify complex subjects and avoid and defuse political issues. “He combines endless determination and dedication with a deep set of government and campaign experiences that make him well positioned to take on any public affairs challenge," said former White House communications director Ben LaBolt.
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Cornerstone Government Affairs, a bipartisan government relations, public affairs and consulting firm, opens a Nevada office—broadening its reach to 15 states, along with its DC office. Combined with its presence in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the Nevada office places Cornerstone in each of the first four states in the presidential nominating process. The expansion into Nevada is being spearheaded by Jason Frierson, who was most recently US Attorney for the District of Nevada, and Alisa Nave-Worth, who comes to Cornerstone after running her own firm, Alisa Nave-Worth Consulting. Both Frierson and Nave-Worth will serve as principal and counsel in the new office. Accompanying them on the Nevada team is Stephanie Balistere, who ran campaign compliance, client communications and logistics at Alisa Nave-Worth Consulting.
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ONAR, a marketing and business solutions network, launches ONAR Labs, a tech incubator. ONAR Labs will focus on developing and commercializing proprietary marketing technology solutions that have been tested across ONAR's network of agencies. The incubator’s first product to be released in Cortex, an AI-powered marketing intelligence platform that has been powering the company's agency network, and will become available to companies via subscription. . "What began as an internal tool that drove exceptional results for our clients is now evolving into a commercial platform that will help enterprises remove marketing uncertainty and drive measurable growth through AI-powered intelligence," said ONAR CEO Claude Zdanow.
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.
