Joele Frank and Her Partners Sell Credibility

Joele Frank

Joele Frank is not one to dote on her personal accomplishments. In fact, at the start of my interview, she admitted she’s never had a story like this written about her.

This is surprising for someone whose firm, Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, has made a name for itself guiding companies through the high-stakes machinations of mergers and acquisitions that regularly involve transactions in the billions of dollars.

For Frank, her individual story is not important. “It’s really a team sport,” Frank insists when talking about her firm’s success. “We just keep our noses to the grindstone.”

But for our purposes, we’re going to focus a bit on Frank’s rise to become, as O’Dwyer’s editor-in-chief Kevin McCauley describes her, the first lady of financial PR.

Frank started out as a biochemist and admitted she spent a long time making no money so she pivoted to getting an MBA. Her first job was with Allied Chemical as a financial analyst.

Frank then moved on to AT&T in their finance department where she was part of the group that divided the Bell system. By 1984 the Baby Bells were all created and her bosses at AT&T weren’t sure what to do with her.

Frank joked that they told her, “you have a big mouth, why don’t you go into investor relations at the new AT&T?” She jumped into her new role and loved it.

But in 1987, AT&T moved to the suburbs of New Jersey and Frank didn’t want any part of that. “I was a small town girl who loved being in New York City,” Frank said.

It was at this point Frank realized that what she was doing at AT&T, others were successfully selling as a business.

Frank managed to get an introduction with Jonathan Rinehart and wound up learning the financial PR business at Adams & Rinehart.

The genesis of her own firm began when her contract at Abernathy MacGregor Frank was up in early 2000.

Frank took her team from Abernathy’s offices on 51st and Madison Ave. and moved just up the street to 55th. The firm now makes its home at the redone 22 Vanderbilt, a few blocks from O’Dwyer’s headquarters on Madison Ave.

Independence is bliss

Frank explained that at Abernathy she was 50 percent of the revenue, 75 percent of the margin and basically none of the equity.

“When we started the firm, we wanted to have a place where we could do good work, have a lot of fun and operate under one bottom line,” Frank stressed. “We were all for one and one for all.”

If you’re part of a conglomerate, they might divide up your company one day, Frank pointed out.

(L to R) Dan Katcher, Vice Chairman; Andy Brimmer, Vice Chairman; Joele Frank, Managing Partner; Matt Sherman, President.

“We are independent owners with one P&L and that means everyone is equal in that environment,” Frank said. “Culture is very important to me.”

Today, there are 26 partners with about half to three quarters homegrown, Frank explained. The only founder to retire is Judith Wilkinson in 2011. Total employee count is over 200.

“Many of our partners came to us right out of college and have come all the way up,” Frank said.

Though started strictly as an M&A shop, Frank described how the partners were forced to broaden their skill set right off the bat.

“You know what we learned in our first year? At the end of a deal, guess what happens if you're only in M&A? You lose the client,” Frank said.

Frank and her partners branched out into investor relations, public relations and activism defense as a result.

Today, graphic and digital work is a key offering of the firm because Frank noted many companies do not have the resources to take care of it on their own.

“When there are investor days involving major presentations, we do a lot of the slide deck work,” Frank said. “This type of work is a defining aspect of the identity of a company.”

Bring it on

Frank comes up against some heavy hitters in the M&A space such as FGS Global, FTI Consulting and Kekst CNC, but she relishes the rivalry.

“One of the things I’ve always stressed is that we need strong competition for the PR industry to exist,” Frank said.

Speaking of being a tough competitor, Frank told me how her kids thought she had done an interview of this type with Vanity Fair 25 years ago based on an AI overview search result that shows Frank described in a piece on the Hewlett-Packard and Compaq merger.

The article by Vicky Ward detailed corporate attorney Larry Sonsini’s failed bid to get Frank on Carly Fiorina’s side. He realized the merger was fast turning into a PR battle and he wanted the best crisis communicator he knew, Ward explained.

Unfortunately for Sonsini, Frank was already booked. Ward wrote:

“Sonsini called corporate-P.R. specialist Joele Frank. Petite, with short, jet-black hair, Frank had the pit-bull reputation you want when things get rough. He was too late. Frank said she appreciated the call, but she had already been hired by Walter Hewlett.”

Frank laughed at how this description of her lives on the web, but she doesn’t shy away from it.

“This was a defining moment for our firm in our second year,” Frank said. Hewlett was the original corporate activist.

“We caused Hewlett-Packard so much trouble, they knew enough to hire us for years and years afterward,” Frank said.

Frank emphasized how essential it is to earn trust in her clients, in the people that deal with her clients, and trust for her clients.

“We sell credibility. If we aren't credible, the clients aren't going to hire us. And if we don't help the clients be credible, it doesn't work,” Frank said.

Editor’s note: Search “Joele Frank petite pit-bull” to see the Vanity Fair piece.