NEW YORK — Burson Cohn & Wolfe has unveiled its North American leadership, the latest step in the agency’s rollout as an integrated combination of Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe.

“It has been an amazing journey over the past few months to identify this group of leaders, learn both sides of the business and to realize and demonstrate the power and strength of (a combined team),” said BCW North America president Chris Foster.

Foster, the former Burson-Marsteller worldwide executive VP, was named BCW’s North America president after the departure of Burson-Marsteller USA CEO Mike Fernandez following the dramatic reverse takeover of the firm by Cohn & Wolfe in March.

BCW’s new North America market leaders are:

  • Austin: Callie Jernigan, previously market leader for Austin for Cohn & Wolfe. 

  • Dallas: Teresa Henderson, previously managing director for Burson-Marsteller. 

  • Chicago: David Coronna, previously managing director for Burson-Marsteller. 

  • New York: Laura Eder will become the interim New York market leader and remain executive VP/managing director North America (a search for a permanent market leader is underway). She had been Cohn & Wolfe’s president of North America.

  • Northeast (Boston and Pittsburgh): Drew O’Brien will become market leader and continue in his role as client leader for Bank of America.  

  • Southeast (Atlanta): Candace McCaffery, who previously led the market for Cohn & Wolfe. 

  • Southwest/Memphis: Maury Lane will become market leader and continue in the role he had at Burson-Masteller as client leader for FedEx.

  • Washington: AJ Jones will become interim market leader and continue in his Burson-Marsteller corporiate practice leader role.

  • West Coast (San Francisco and LA): Mischa Dunton, who previously led the region for Cohn & Wolfe. 

In naming market leaders, BCW is taking the lead from Cohn & Wolfe, which operated using that model before the merger and “will allow us to go seamlessly to market,” Foster said. Burson-Masteller’s leaders were previously based on practices rather than location.

According to a BCW spokesperson, the market leader structure allows for greater collaboration across the region and responsiveness to staff, as well as the ability to go to market faster with greater strength. Market leaders focus specifically about the growth of their market and staff development; Practice leaders, meanwhile, focus on developing capabilities and leadership within their area of expertise, the rep said.

In addition, Gary Koops, managing director and chairman of Burson-Marsteller's global media practice, has left the agency after 21 years.

Meanwhile, BCW announced new members of its Middle East team, which spans 10 wholly-owned offices and 7 affiliates across the Middle East and North Africa. They are:

  • Sophie McNulty, a former partner with Buchanan, who joins as senior consultant in the finance practice and Dhanya Issac, who joins the group as account director from Weber Shandwick.
  • Dom Bartkus, who has joined as enterprise and technology practice head. Bartkus also heads the polling and research outfit, PSB, in the region.
  • Rebecca Cousins, Ibrahim Al Muttawa and Mohammed Al Saeed have joined the Saudi Arabia office to work on the firm's  Vision 2030 account.
  • Nicola Houlton has joined as HR Manager and Divya Dharmarajan as talent acquisition specialist. 

Additionally, BCW in late July announced their Europe and Africa leaders, all of whom will report to Europe & Africa president Scott Wilson. BCW Asia-Pacific president Matt Stafford – the former Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific China managing director – announced his market leadership line-up in April.