Backstory

The international consulting business of FGS (initially Finsbury Glover Hering when it won this category two years ago) was formed at the beginning of 2021 by the merger of Finsbury (a UK-based financial consultancy that had absorbed the US business of Robinson Lerer), Washington public affairs consultancy Glover Park, and German corporate and financial powerhouse Hering Schuppener. The merger also involved buying back much of the stake in the three companies held by WPP, which remains a majority partner. In October of 2021, the firm acquired New York-based corporate and financial communications specialist Sard Verbinnen, deepening its credentials in the M&A arena and in crisis communications. In March, private equity group KKR, one of the largest and most discerning investment companies in the world, bought a large stake in FGS in a deal that valued the firm at around $1.4 billion.

Locations

With the addition of Sard Verbinnen to Finsbury’s existing New York office, FGS is now a major player in the world’s financial capital, while the Glover Park business gives it an equally formidable presence in the most critical political center of Washington DC. There’s also a smaller West Coast presence in Los Angeles and in November FGS acquired Longview, a Canadian public affairs firm with three offices in Canada. And of course, there’s a strong international network, with market leading capabilities in the UK and Germany in particular, and a growing Asia-Pacific and Middle East presence.

Performance

While WPP’s public relations operations were largely flat in 2023, the company said that FGS Global “continued to grow strongly in 2023,” which translates into a solid double-digit increase in revenues during a difficult year. While the pace of M&A activity was at its lowest ebb in a decade, FGS was nevertheless able to increase its market share, ranked number one by both the volume and value of deals worked globally and, according to mergermarket. In the US, it ranked second only to Joele Frank, handling 219 deals worth more than $400 million. The firm also ranked second on Bloomberg’s ranking of advisors to companies facing activism battles, working with Disney on what was arguably the biggest proxy battle of the year. The firm also expanded its work with longtime client Bloomberg and continues to serve Adobe, Goldman Sachs, and UHG on an ongoing basis.

People & Culture

One of the firm’s greatest strengths is an ownership structure that provides all FGS employees with a path to ownership: currently more than 500 of the firm’s 1300 people have equity in the business—almost certainly the largest number of employee owners in the business. That, and an approach that emphasizes firm-wide profit sharing over locally-driven bonuses, means FGS has a team ethos and a more collaborative culture than many of its direct competitors. The US leadership team includes CEO of North America Winnie Lerner, North American co-chairs Michael Feldman, Paul Kranhold and Paul Verbinnen, as well as Finsbury veteran Paul Holmes, Glover Park founder Carter Eskew and SVC co-founder George Sard in global roles. n EMEA, meanwhile, it has a formidable leadership team that includes CEO Alex Geiser, who previously led Hering Schuppener; global co-chairman Roland Rudd; Faeth Birch, CEO for the UK and international; and Brigitte von Haacke, CEO Europe. 

Thought Leadership & Work

Positioning itself as “the strategic advisor for the stakeholder economy,” FGS is one of a handful of firms that can offer CEOs, boards and CEOs the kind of strategic insight they need to manage high-profile issues in the capital markets, policy, and corporate reputation arena, from ESG to M&A. The firm has been investing heavily in its Fergus AI suite, looking to combine predictive analytics with the unrivaled depth of its counseling expertise to offer clients data-driven solutions. It has also introduced a new specialty group designed to help clients make the positive case for AI and an offer that helps companies counter disinformation in the age of deepfakes. As far as the work is concerned, in the activism arena, FGS supported Disney in its proxy battle with Nelson Peltz; on the M&A front it worked with Spirit Airlines on its planned mergers with JetBlue and Frontier Group; while in the crisis arena it has been helping Norfolk Southern in the wake of an incident at its Cleveland Cliffs property and with Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank amid the bank crisis of  early 2023.

— Paul Holmes

Backstory

Founded in 2000 by Joele Frank, who had worked at legendary financial communications firms Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart and Abernathy MacGregor, Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher went from upstart to market leader almost overnight, becoming a fixture at the top end of various lists of M&A communications advisors and quickly establishing itself as a leader in broader corporate reputation, investor relations and crisis communications work. Today the firm can offer particular expertise in “special situations,” including shareholder activism, transaction communications (friendly and contested), environmental/social/governance issues and executive communications, crisis, and litigation support.

Locations

The firm is headquartered in New York with an office in San Francisco and its 200 people serve clients around the world. n 2023, the team advised clients either based in or with substantial announcements in 22 countries, from Australia to Bermuda, from Malaysia to Mexico.

Performance

Last year was a challenging one for mergers and acquisitions, with activity at the lowest level in a decade, but there was plenty of work in the crisis arena, with shareholder activism on the rise. By the metrics that matter to high-stakes specialist firms like Joele Frank, 2023 was pretty impressive: the firm was number two among M&A advisors in the Americas, according the mergermarket (and number three globally by the number of deals worked); and number one in Bloomberg’s Global Activism League Table. The firm’s client list includes names like 3M, LKQ, Emerson, Kroger, Mastercard, Norfolk Southern, Salesforce, S&P Global, and Verizon, while new business came from Choice Hotels, Crown Castle, MGM, Planet Fitness, SVB Financial and Stratasys.

People & Culture

Joele Frank is at this point an iconic figure in the financial communications world, having outlasted most of her peers to build a firm that remains not only resolute in its independence but more than capable of going head-to-head with larger, global, publicly-traded and equity-backed consulting firms. Name partners Andy Brimmer and Dan Katcher remain active too, and partner Matt Sherman serves as president. But the depth is just as impressive as the leadership, with 24 partners and 38 managing directors and directors. And while the high-stakes financial PR business can be fairly cut-throat, team-building initiatives promote collaboration, motivation and engagement: there’s a co-ed soccer team and meditation evenings. Diverse perspectives lead to richer discussions and better outcomes so the firm is committed to promoting D&I. And giving back is valued with support for St. Jude’s Children's Hospital, Food Bank of NYC, City Harvest and more.

Thought Leadership & Work

Frank and her team are regular speakers at high-profile events on topics such as activism and crisis, but it’s the range of the firm’s high-profile, mission-critical assignments that stands out. In the M&A arena, the firm worked for Choice Hotels in its hostile bid for rival Wyndham, Kroger on its acquisition of Albertson’s. Stratasys as it faced a hostile bid, and US Steel as it faced an approach from Nippon Steel in one of the biggest stories of the year. In the activism arena, the firm worked with Crown Castle and Salesforce. The SVB work was one of the biggest crisis stories of the year, Norfolk Southern was another, and the firm helped Hawaiian Electric deal with the high-profile fallout from the wildfires that tore through Maui. There was a leadership transition at Planet Fitness and bankruptcies at Gol Linhas Aéreas and Rite Aid—all in a day’s work.

— Paul Holmes

Backstory

Jennifer Prosek founded Prosek Partners in 1991, with the vision of helping the financial services sector become more proactive – and far more creative – around brand and reputation management. The firm’s offer now covers media relations, thought leadership, social and digital media, public affairs, investor relations, financial communications, transaction services, crisis communications and issues management, content creation, conference support, publishing, media training and more. Prosek's strategic branding and integrated marketing arm – Prophecy by Prosek – adds brand strategy, design, digital and advertising capabilities. In 2021, Prosek stepped up its ESG credentials by taking a majority stake in sustainable finance consultancy, Blue Dot Capital – another female-led business and last year launched a joint integrated investor relations ESG offering for public and late-stage companies. 

Locations

Headquartered in New York, Prosek’s 340 employees also work across Boston, Los Angeles, Fairfield, Palm Beach and Washington, DC, as well as in London and Cape Town.

Performance

Silicon Valley Bank had been a 10-year Prosek client before its dramatic demise in March, so that dealt something of a blow at the end of the first quarter. Nevertheless, the firm achieved 15% growth in 2023, ending the year with global fee income of around $105 million, the vast majority of it in the US. But the big win for Prosek last year was its climb to third place (behind established specialist firms like FGS and Joele Frank) in M&A deal count in the Americas according to mergermarket—and number four globally—a signal that what was once a challenger brand is now a legitimate leader. The firm continues to work with big name clients including Carlyle Group, Edward Jones, Eldridge, Prudential, Franklin Templeton Investments, Vista Equity Partners, and Wellington Management.

People & Culture

Prosek is a certified women-owned business and is committed to embracing diversity of all kinds: race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation and socioeconomic background. A Diverse Mentor Program, a focus on professional development and providing “Custom Careers” are important retention tools. The Diverse Voices initiatives have offered fireside chats with Ritchie Torres, the first gay Afro-Latino American member of Congress; and Kimberly Chin, an Axios reporter and a prominent Asian female journalist. Prosek has also offered volunteer PR support to the Diversity Action Alliance. The thing that really stands out, though, is the “army of entrepreneurs” culture that Prosek has fostered through the years as the firm has expanded to include a dozen partners.

Thought Leadership & Work

One of the firm’s major additions in 2023 was a new managing director of data and analytics, Geoffrey Sidari, previously executive vice president of insights and analytics at WE Communications, who is leading initiatives to examine how AI can be leveraged to augment everything from measurement to influencer mapping. In addition, the firm launched a new “Conference Concierge” offer to help clients navigate the crowded marketplace of events and ensure they receive a strong return on investment for every engagement, as well as new sports business working with properties, investors, owners, operators, athletes in business and sponsors. On the deal front, Prosek work with Arctos Partners as it took a minority stake in the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One team, announced during the as Vegas Grand Prix; on Elliott Investment Management, Vertias Capital and Patient Square Capital’s acquisition of Syneos Health; Vista Equity Partners’ acquisition of EngageSmart. And while the M&A market was quiet in 2023, there was plenty of work in the activism arena, and Prosek was ranked number five for activism defense in the US by Bloomberg—it advised Fortrea on activist outreach by Starboard Value and BlackRock funds on proxy battle with Saba Capital—and number four among advisors on the activist side. The firm also worked with fintech platform CAIS to launch the new CAIS Alternative Investment Summit.

— Paul Holmes

Backstory

The SEC Newgate brand was born from the 2019 merger of UK holding company Porta, which owned international corporate and financial consultancy Newgate, and Italian public affairs firm SEC, which had made several independent agency acquisitions in Europe. It took a couple of additional years before the brand was adopted by the Asia-Pacific, aligning itself with sister offices that operate under that name worldwide. The firm’s integrated services include public affairs and advocacy, financial and corporate communications, digital insights, research, crisis management and consumer PR. 

Locations

Australia dominates SEC Newgate’s current Asia-Pacific footprint with 117 people, while there are smaller operations in Singapore (14) and Greater China (13), and a focus on expanding further into Korea and Southeast Asia. 

Performance

SEC Newgate grew 3% to $23m in 2022, with an economic slowdown impacting each of its key markets. Australia was up 3%, with increasing political work supplementing its issues management and transaction counsel for Sun Corp, Coles, and the Bush Summit. Singapore was flat, handling projects for Temasek, TUC Enterprise, Comfort DelGro and Capsquare Asia. Greater China reported single-digit growth, acquiring Mars Communications in Shanghai, and adding work from Shinera, Averis & Marsall, ADN Capital, a number of legal players, and Hongkong Land. Increasing cross-border collaboration between Hong Kong and Singapore, demonstrated by such clients as as Ashurst, FalconX, A&M and Eastspring, bode well for the firm’s regional cohesion. 

People & Culture

Brian Tyson, managing partner of the Australian operation, also serves as global deputy CEO, a recognition of the market’s critical importance to the firm, while James Hill oversees China and Singapore is led by Terence Foo, one of the country’s most respected financial practitioners. Singapore added Sabrina Quek to lead digital, while Victoria Guo arrived to lead Shanghai.The firm has been proactive in terms of developing more flexible workplace policies, with an emphasis on providing resources that allow employees to work from home and provide assistance with mental health and other work-life balance challenges, including paid wellbeing leave when needed.

Thought Leadership & Work

In Australia, robust thought leadership activities include public affairs briefs around major events like elections and budgets, along with a bi-monthly Mood of the Nation sentiment tracker with the Australian. More notably, perhaps, the firm has expanded its annual ESG Monitor from Australia into a successful global study. The firm’s ability to operate at the intersection of financial, corporate and political issues was reflected by its work for SunCorp and Coles in Australia, and for Comfort DelGro in Singapore, while it also supported ADM Capital’s fundraising efforts and ACCA’s influencer marketing. SEC Newgate also created the Bush Summit in conjunction with News Corp, focusing on regional issues in Australia. 

— Arun Sudhaman

Backstory

Now known as Team Farner, the Swiss market leader is not just a domestic heavyweight, but one of the best players in EMEA, as evidenced by its selection as one of PRovoke’s EMEA Consultancies of the Decade. And the firm’s progress in recent years demonstrates that it is just as focused on the future, tying up with an investment partner to help bankroll a string of acquisitions including such major names as Lansons in the UK, Kirchoff Consult, Komm.passion VIM and GFD in Germany, Skills and All Channels in Austria, and several others across the DACH region and beyond. All of which gives Farner an offering that spans the entire value chain of communications, including strategy, reputation and issues management, crisis, digital marketing, advertising, branding/brand transformation/employer branding, change/internal communications, public affairs, corporate communications and behavioral design.

Locations

Team Farner's acquisition spree means headcount is now nearing 700, across 17 offices in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the UK, the Netherlands and the USA.

Performance

Underpinned by seven acquisitions in 2023 alone, Team Farner’s fee income grew 25% increase in 2023 to break the $100m barrier at $112.6m. The firm’s client portfolio is impressive, with key existing clients including ABB, abbvie, IBM, ING, Merck, Microsoft, Roche, SIX, SwissLife, UBS, and notable new acquisitions such as Atruvia, Columbia Threadneedle, Frequentis, Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, Inventx, Lidl, LSEG, Porsche, Santander, Volkswagen.

People & Culture

In addition to Farner CEO Roman Geiser, who serves as executive chairman of Team Farner, key leaders include Lansons CEO Gordon Tempest-Hay, Lansons MD Laura Hastings, komm.passion founder/CEO Alexander Güttler, Farner co-CEOs Pablo Koerfer and Michel Grunder, VIM CEO Marc Cloosterman, KTHE founder/CEO Rudolf Kobza and Team Farner CIO Daniel Jörg. The firm is particularly focused on promoting gender diversity in leadership and ensuring equal pay. There’s also considerable focus on flexible work arrangements, including a "workation" policy, alongside involvement in initiatives like Equal Voice and the Diversity Charter.

Thought Leadership & Work

Team Farner’s thought leadership includes various publications and research, such as a publication on Behavioural Science in Global Policy, the yearly DACH Study, and specific reports on COP28 and reputation. In terms of work, Farner developed an award-winning employer branding campaign for Swiss Federal Railways and a successful PR/election campaign for Islam Alijaj in Switzerland’s national parliament. 

— Arun Sudhaman