NEW YORK — In its latest management reshuffle, Edelman has reworked its practices and sectors structure under the new leadership of Ben Boyd, who was promoted today to lead this division.
According to an internal memo seen by the Holmes Report, Alan VanderMolen, who previously led practices and sectors, now oversees Edelman Digital, sister agency Zeno and research arm Edelman Berland, as well as Latin America and Canada.
Meanwhile, Boyd — previously deputy chairman of Edelman’s practices and sectors — steps up as president of Edelman's practices, sectors & offerings. As part of the promotion, Boyd relinquishes his post as global corporate chair with plans underway to name a successor.
Under Boyd, Edelman has moved technology and healthcare from being practice areas to becoming sectors, alongside energy, financial services and food & beverage. Edelman’s global practices are now business and social purpose, consumer marketing, corporate, crisis and risk and public affairs.
“We are expanding our addressable market, creating opportunity for cross-practice and cross-geography support in some of the world’s most important industries,” Richard Edelman stated in the company memo. “This strategy is a focused effort to deepen our industry specialization (‘who we do it for’) while continuing to develop market-leading practice capabilities (‘what we do’).”
When asked about the organizational difference between a global sector chair and a global practice chair, Boyd told the Holmes Report “there is no substantive change. The two are equivalent.” He expects both to be P&L agnostic with the sector heads working across practices to fill client needs.
With the exception of healthcare (led by Kym White), the global leadership posts for Edelman’s sector areas are currently vacant. There are, however, plans to fill those slots over the next several weeks. The firm is also planning name to name a new head of consumer, corporate and public affairs on the practice side.
In the new role, Boyd reports into Edelman and sits on the executive leadership team.