NEW YORK — Ruder Finn has acquired New Jersey-based SPI Group, bolstering the agency's offerings in areas including employee experience, corporate branding and corporate reputation.

SPI is a 30-person, healthcare-focused firm, the addition of which will bring the number of staffers working in Ruder Finn’s global healthcare practice to nearly 250. SPI’s clients include big-name multinationals such as Regeneron, LabCorp, Merck, Bayer and Pfizer, the latter two of which are also Ruder Finn clients.

Founder Steve Goodman will remain on the SPI management team, but will give up his CEO title and daily responsibilities that come with it. Communications and strategy head Ellen English and digital lead James Koppenal will lead the firm in their current positions.

Adding SPI’s capabilities better positions Ruder Finn to provide healthcare companies the full range of services, including increasingly important internal communications, said CEO Kathy Bloomgarden. “The integration of our teams is going to give us a lot of new thinking and a lot of additional power,” she said.

Ruder Finn will also tap SPI’s expertise in its other practices, including technology and consumer, to increase their internal comms capabilities as well.

The acquisition is the latest expansion move by Ruder Finn, which, with double digit growth, is on track to hit roughly $80m in revenue this year, Bloomgarden said. The firm made its last acquisition in July 2018, when it bought health and wellness marketing firm RLA Collective.