Who, Where, How
much?
2.1
Structure
Worldwide Executive
Committee[9]
Howard G. Paster
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Hill and Knowlton, Inc.
Before taking the jobs of chairman and CEO of H&K in 1994,
Mr. Paster was the Assistant to President Clinton and Director of
the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
He was previously head of H&K’s Washington office and before
that executive vice president of Timmons and Company, Inc., a Washington,
D.C. consulting firm. Previously, Mr. Paster served as legislative
director of the United Auto Workers (UAW).
Paul Taaffe
President, Hill and Knowlton, Inc.
Paul Taaffe was previously president of Hill and Knowlton in Europe,
Middle East and Africa, and before that, chief executive of Hill and
Knowlton UK.
Before Hill and Knowlton, Mr. Taaffe worked as managing director of
Shandwick Consultants where he was responsible for financial public
relations, corporate and business-to-business communications programs
on both national and international clients.
Mark Thorne
Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer, Hill and Knowlton,
Inc.
Thorne moved to Hill and Knowlton from WPP Group, H&K’s
parent company, where he was chief financial officer of WPP's North
American operations. Before that, he was chief financial officer of
Beatrice International Food Company. He worked for ten years at Deloitte
Haskins & Sells, with clients including The New York Times, Union
Pacific Corporation and Chanel International.
Maureen Blanc
Director, Worldwide Technology Practice
Maureen Blanc was a co-founder Blanc & Otus - one of the leading
technology public relations firms, acquired by H&K in 1999. Over
the past fifteen years, Maureen has helped define technology PR for
the burgeoning high tech industry. She has extensive experience of
startup companies. At H&K’s technology practice, she heads
one of the largest technology PR practices in the world, with revenues
of more than $80 million annually.
Tony Burgess-Webb
Director, Worldwide Netcoms Practice
During a sixteen year career at H&K, Mr. Burgess-Webb started
up H&K's European technology practice in 1993, and H&K's Netcoms
division 1994. He joined H&K UK in 1985. Mr. Burgess-Webb specialises
in transnational brand communications, and leads Hill and Knowlton's
cross-border brand communications.
Michael Coates
President and CEO, Hill and Knowlton Canada
Before becoming president and CEO of Hill and Knowlton Canada,
Mr. Coates was general manager of the highly successful Ottawa office.
He remains one of the firm's leading public affairs consultants. Mr.
Coates' began his career in 1983, at Public Affairs International
(PAI) consultants. He become vice president of marketing before PAI
merged with Hill and Knowlton in 1989.
MaryLee Sachs
President and CEO, Hill and Knowlton USA and Director, Worldwide
Marketing Communications Practice
Sachs took her position on the Worldwide Executive Committee having
been chairman, European marketing communications and chief executive
of the marketing communications division within the UK office.
Sachs has over 22 years experience, and has specialised in marketing,
international PR, sponsorship and education.
Thomas W. Hoog
Chairman, Hill and Knowlton USA/Acting General Manager, DC
Hoog was president and CEO of H&K USA between 1996 and 2001,
when he guided the U.S. firm through its recovery from its troubles
of the early nineties, he concentrated on developing internal resources
and acquiring other companies.
Before that, Hoog was chairman of the public affairs practice and
general manager of the New York and Washington offices. Prior to joining
H&K, he founded Hoog and Associates, Inc., a Colorado-based governmental
affairs firm.
He was on the executive committee and national finance committee for
Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and also spent five
years as chief of staff for U.S. Senator Gary Hart of Colorado. Hoog’s
experience in national politics began when he worked for Senator Robert
F. Kennedy’s and Senator George McGovern’s presidential
election campaigns.
Hoog currently serves on corporate boards of directors and frequently
delivers speeches and leads seminars at universities around the nation.
He is the chairman-elect of the Counselors Academy of the Public Relations
Society of America.
Paul McDade
Director, Worldwide Health and Pharmaceutical Practice
Paul McDade has extensive experience of working with pharmaceutical
and health care companies. He counsels companies on global communication
strategies and how to accelerating global brand awareness.
Paul has worked companies such as, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cigna, Centocor,
Hoffman-LaRoche, Merck, Ortho Biotech and U.S. Healthcare. He has
also been director of public affairs for the New York State Society
of Anesthesiologists.
Harlan Teller
Chief Client Officer and President, Worldwide Corporate Practice
Mr. Teller, with almost thirty years of experience working as
a corporate communications consultant, has managed crises, mergers
and acquisitions transactions, bankruptcies, leveraged buy-outs and
restructurings, public policy issues, litigation, labor issues, employee
communications and financial relations programs.
Mr. Teller joined H&K from Burson-Marsteller, where he was chairman
of B-M’s corporate practice, and previously general manager of
the firm's Chicago office.
Brian West
President and CEO, Hill and Knowlton Asia Pacific/Executive
Chairman, Australia/Managing Director, Australia
West was previously managing director for Hill and Knowlton Australia
and senior vice president of H&K’s Asia Pacific region. He
has extensive experience of managing crises such as Class 1 chemical
disasters (including Australia’s largest such disaster), product
contamination/tampering, extortion and technology related crises.
2.2 Locations
Head Office
Hill and Knowlton, Inc.
466 Lexington Avenue
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10017
Phone: +1 212 885 0300
Fax: +1 212 885 0570
London Office
Hill & Knowlton
35 Red Lion Square
London
WC1R 4SG
Phone: +44 207 413 3000
Fax: +44 207 413 3111
2.3 Practice Structure
H&K now employs 2000 people in 66 offices in 35 countries. Like
Burson-Marsteller, it structures its global business around five regions:
Asia Pacific; Canada; Europe, Middle East & Africa; Latin America;
and the United States. Also like Burson-Marsteller it organises its
services into seven ‘practices’: Corporate, Public Affairs,
Health & Pharma, Technology, Marketing, Netcoms, and Financial.
The Corporate
Practice
H&K’s corporate practice offers help and advice on managing
clients’ “perceptual assets”, by which they mean the
client’s reputation as perceived by shareholders and investors,
employees and the wider public. The corporate practice also handles
crisis communications, “strategic philanthropy”, and “litigation
support”[10].
Public Affairs
Practice
Public Affairs is the term given to those aspects of PR and lobbying
aimed at influencing governmental organisations. H&K was the first
PR company to offer an integrated PR and lobbying service and the
Public Affairs practice continues to offer “state of the art”
services at the local national and international levels[11].
Health and
Pharma Practice
Like B-M H&K offers a separate practice specifically for the
healthcare and pharmaceutical sector. In this way they can offer PR
expertise for this highly sophisticated and rapidly changing industry
sector.
The practice is composed of several ‘asset groups’ offering
specialised knowledge of life sciences, pharmaceuticals, consumer
health care, and corporate reputation management, amongst other areas[12].
Technology
Practice
The Technology practice offers the full range of PR services for
“today’s changing technology landscape - software and services,
consumer technology, internet computing, wireless, networking and
telecoms, and equipment and hardware manufacturers.” The practice
works with a diverse array of clients from big multinationals to small
internet startups.[13]
Marketing Communications
Practice
The Marketing Communications Practice offers state of the art
services in marketing for its clients. The practice employs an armoury
of different marketing techniques and is able to use H&K’s
global presence to great effect in building international branding
and marketing[14].
Netcoms Practice
With the ubiquity of electronic communications H&K now offers
a practice entirely devoted to PR on the internet. The Netcoms Practice
researches clients’ presence on the internet, offers advice on
addressing internet issues, and offers web design and e-business project
management[15].
Financial Communications
Practice
The Financial Communications Practice is aimed at tailoring clients’
communications to the financial markets. Through specialised financial
expertise they aim to help clients attract investors, and achieve
optimal share price[16].
2.4 Subsidiaries
Blanc &
Otus
- a specialist hi-tech PR firm, Blanc and Otus works for big software
and hardware companies as well as small start-ups[17].
Byoir and Associates
–a highly respected Washington based PR firm acquired by H&K
in 1986. Byoir saw falling revenues from then until the mid-90s when
it was re-launched as a “premium boutique agency—offering
strategic counselling and creative thinking to blue-chip clients that
wanted a more personal approach”. In spite of some initial success,
revenues fell again and the Byoir brand was suspended indefinitely
in 2000. It may however be revived in future[18].
The Wexler
Group
– aka Wexler and Walker Public Policy Associates has been lobbying
in Washington since 1981, and is known to be involved with the USA
Engage front group (see below). Anne Wexler began her Washington career
in the Carter Administration. Wexler’s partner, Bob Walker is
a former Republican congressman and Chairman of the House Science
Committee[19].
Socket Public Relations – another hi-tech PR company representing
clients in the IT sector or other companies using the internet[20].
