Lessons Learned After Being Acquired

Jun 21

Webcast Overview

Life doesn't stop once a PR agency has been acquired. Its CEO and entire staff become integrated into the buyer's organization and life becomes quite different. Whether it's a good or bad life depends upon many factors -- culture, chemistry, synergy as well as the blending of best practices of seller and buyer.

Learn from someone whose firm has been acquired and who can share that experience with PR agency CEOs who are thinking about selling at some point. Grace Leong's firm Hunter PR was acquired by MDC Partners several years ago. Learn from Grace firsthand how sellers can make being acquired work. Grace is one of the most respected agency heads in the industry. Here words of wisdom will teach you how and what to do to make being acquired exciting, stimulating, motivating and financially rewarding.

Special Guest

Grace LeongCEO + PartnerHunter PR Partners

Grace Leong is CEO of Hunter PR Partners, a marketing communications firm with offices in New York City and London and talent located throughout the United States and Canada.Grace was a founding employee of Hunter PR Partners and for the past 29 years has led teams of entrepreneurial professionals in the creation and execution of best-in-class marketing communications campaigns in the food, wine/spirits, health/beauty, toys/games, retail and consumer products industries.Now a proud member of MDC network, Hunter PR Partners continues to offer public relations, experiential, entertainment, social/digital media and multi-cultural marketing services to Fortune 100 clients including 3M, Johnson & Johnson, Mondelez, Keurig and Diageo. Hunter PR was named the “Consumer Agency of the Year” in 2014 by the Holmes Report and is consistently recognized as a “best place to work” within the public relations industry.An accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and the Arthur Page Society, Grace has served the public relations and marketing industry in numerous leadership positions. In 2016, she was awarded the PRSA-NY John W. Hill Award for lifetime achievement in public relations.Grace earned a BA from the University of Delaware and an MBA from Rutgers University. She was named the Delaware’s outstanding alumni in 2013 and inducted in to the University’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 2016.A native of the Garden State, Grace and her husband are the proud parents of four teenage children. | @GraceTLeong

Host

Art StevensManaging PartnerThe Stevens Group

Art Stevens literally knows the PR industry at every level and in every aspect, from the inside out and from foundation to pinnacle. Art knows what makes a PR business successful, profitable and valuable. A prolific writer as well as a dynamic executive, Art is subtle, observant and quietly creative, yet not opposed to a good measure of “brandstanding” when appropriate.He has been valuing agencies, brokering mergers and acquisitions, and providing strategic advice for ten years. Art is a former owner and CEO of LobsenzStevens, a Top-20 independent PR agency, which Publicis Groupe acquired. | @ArtS1735

Paul Kontonis

Paul is a strategic marketing executive and brand builder that navigates businesses through the ever changing marketing landscape to reach revenue and company M&A targets with 25 years experience. As CMO of Revry, the LGBTQ-first media company, he is a trusted advisor and recognized industry leader who combines his multi-industry experiences in digital media and marketing with proven marketing methodologies that can be transferred to new battles across any industry.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kontonis/