Finn Partners has entered into a formal agreement to acquire Portland-based independent agency Lane PR.
Financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed.
Lane, which was founded in 1990 by president Wendy Lane Stevens and currently employs about two dozen, specializes in financial services, crisis, consumer, food/beverage and technology. The agency, which maintains an additional office in New York as well as a presence in Seattle, in 2015 accounted for about $4 million in net fees.
The acquisition gives New York-based Finn Partners its first forays into Pacific Northwest territory, and comes on the heels of its June acquisition of Washington, D.C.-based branding, design and marketing services firm Greenfield Belser. The global independent agency in September picked up San Francisco-based tech agency Horn Group.
 Lane PR president Wendy Lane Stevens and Finn Partners founding partner Peter Finn. |
“One of the reasons our acquisitions are so successful is that we only buy firms that share our business philosophy: working very hard and playing nicely with our peers and our clients isn't just a catch phrase we use to describe ourselves. It’s part of the DNA of Finn Partners and of the agencies we acquire,” Finn Partners founding partner Peter Finn told O’Dwyer’s. “We never could have grown the way we have with standard agency turf issues. Collaboration is the secret to our success.”
Lane retains its brand and will now wear the appending banner “a Finn Partners company.” The agency will also maintain its Portland office and will continue to be managed by Stevens, who will also continue to manage Lane’s staff in New York and now assumes the title of Finn Partners managing partner.
Stevens will report to managing partner Howard Solomon, who is based in San Francisco and heads the Finn Partners West outpost, which includes offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland.
Lane’s New York team, which is led by senior vice president Amber Roberts, is slated to relocate to Finn Partners’ existing Midtown office by the end of September.
Chelsey Thomas, who was a VP at Booz Allen Hamilton and a professional staff member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is joining defense technology company AEVEX as VP of government affairs.
Finn Partners has named Fahlgren Mortine veteran Marty McDonald as managing partner and head of its new Columbus office.
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