2.1 Structure
Executive Board[7]
Harold
Burson
Founding Chairman of Burson-Marsteller, Harold Burson has been in
PR for more than fifty years. He was once described by PR Week as
“the century’s most influential PR figure” due to the
market share of B-M and his innovative work.
Now in his 80s, Burson stepped down as CEO in 1988, the company he
co-founded in 1953. He still works at B-M for many long-term clients,
including Philip Morris, Merrill Lynch and Coca-Cola. He has no retirement
plans[8].
Chris Komisarjevsky
President & CEO Worldwide, Chris Komisarjevsky was previously
president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller USA. Until 1995, Mr. Komisarjevsky
was president and CEO at Gavin Anderson & Company, a public relations
subsidiary of Omnicom.
Before that, Mr. Komisarjevsky held senior positions at Hill and Knowlton,
Inc. Over 20 years at H&K, he served as president and CEO of the
company's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, was CEO of its
Carl Byoir & Associates subsidiary, was head of the firm's New
York office and head of its corporate practice.
During his career, Mr. Komisarjevsky has been responsible for public
relations and public affairs activities for major corporate and trade
association clients in financial services, building materials, entertainment,
pharmaceuticals, health care, communications, real estate, management
consulting and consumer products. He has had extensive experience
in crisis management and labour negotiations.
Ken Rietz
Chief Operating Officer and Chair of the global public affairs
practice. Ken Rietz career has encompassed more than 30 years in public
affairs, public relations and marketing positions. Mr. Rietz now works
in New York, after serving as President and CEO of Burson-Marsteller
Europe. He has also been CEO of the Western Region, Global Public
Affairs Practice Chair and President and CEO of the Washington Region,
for B-M.
Before
joining Burson-Marsteller in 1989, he was a chief legislative adviser
to a senior member of Congress, deputy chairman and political director
of the Republican National Committee, executive vice president of
MGM Records, a founding partner in Mike Curb Productions and the strategic
and media adviser to several members of the U.S. House of Representatives
and the U.S. Senate. He has experience in four Republican presidential
campaigns. He was implicated in Nixon’s scandalous 1972
re-election campaign, for hiring agents provocateurs for demonstrations.
John Maltese
Chief Financial Officer Worldwide, John Maltese joined Burson-Marsteller
in 1986. He began as an Assistant Controller for the Eastern Region,
was promoted to Controller of the Americas in 1988, Director of Finance,
worldwide, in 1991. In mid-1993 he took the opportunity to manage
Young & Rubicam Inc.'s financial accounting subsidiary, Shared
Financial Services Company, and was recently promoted to his current
position.
Before B-M, Mr. Maltese spent eight years as controller of New York
based advertising agency, N.W. Ayer. Before the communications industry,
he worked at manufacturing company, Gulf & Western, and for five
years at Citibank.
Fred Hawrysh
Director of Global Client Service, Fred Hawrysh is based in B-M’s
New York headquarters, where he moved in 1997. He has worked with
Burson-Marsteller since 1983, in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Per Heggenes
Chief Knowledge & Insights Officer Worldwide, Heggenes is
oversees proprietary knowledge development, the knowledge and research
centres, knowledge sharing systems such as the company intranet and
website development and the creative director staff. Previously, he
was chairman of the Corporate Practice in Europe from April 1998.
Before that, he was Chief Operating Officer of B-M Europe when he
was instrumental in rolling out the new client practice structure
throughout Europe. Per joined Burson-Marsteller Oslo as an account
executive in 1982.
Chet Burchett
President & CEO USA, Chet Burchett joined B-M in 1998. He
has had numerous roles including president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller
Midwest and U.S. Practice Chair for the Brand Marketing practice.
Chet has 20 years of news media and public relations experience. He
is a specialist in reputation management. He has developed and executed
programs in the areas of corporate communications, public affairs,
consumer marketing, sports marketing and business-to-business.
Santiago Hinojosa
President & CEO Latin America, Hinojosa joined Burson-Marsteller
in July, 1998.
From 1996 until 1998 Mr. Hinojosa was Regional Managing Director for
DMB&B Americas (1996-1998), based in Mexico city. He was previously
Managing Director of DMB&B's Mexican operations, Noble DMB&B,
a large advertising agency in Mexico.
Before DMB&B, Hinojosa was Bozell Worldwide's Managing Director
for Latin America, and before that he spent 17 years with McCann-Erickson,
in throughout South America. He began his advertising career as an
account executive at Benton & Bowles.
Bill Rylance
President & CEO of the Asia/Pacific region, Bill Rylance joined
Burson-Marsteller in 1982, working in London and the Middle East.
In 1986 he was assigned to Korea to manage B-M's worldwide public
relations programme for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
In 1989, Bill established Merit Communications, Korea's first international
public relations consultancy. In a decade, Merit became the largest
PR firm in Korea. Bill personally provided communications and media
relations counsel for the Government of Korea, working directly with
the Office of the President.
B-M bought Merit Communications in 1999 and Bill became President
and CEO of Burson-Marsteller Asia Pacific, responsible for all operations
in Asia Pacific.
Carlos Lareau
As Managing Director, Southern Europe, Carlos Lareau has led B-M/Iberia
since 1996 before which he held several positions in B-M and was also
Vice President of Communications and EU Affairs in a major pharmaceutical
company. He has a 14 year experience in Communications, preceded by
a career in economic an political journalism in Spain, the US and
Latin America.
Celia Berk
Appointed Managing Director of Human Resources for Burson-Marsteller
Worldwide in November 1998. Ms. Berk joined Burson-Marsteller in January
1997 in the then newly created position of Managing Director, Human
Resources for the United States. Prior to joining Burson-Marsteller,
Ms. Berk was at Reuters America (1988-1998) in roles encompassing
human resources, organizational planning, training, quality and internal
communications. Before that, Ms. Berk was Administrator of the Harkness
Fellowships of The Commonwealth Fund.
Thomas Blach
Now the Managing Director for the Nordic Region, Central, and
Northern Europe, Thomas Blach joined Burson-Marsteller in 1989, and
became country manager of Burson-Marsteller, Denmark in 1992. From
January 1997 to June 1999 he Chaired the European Public Affairs Practice.
In 1998 he was also Market Leader in Brussels. In July 1999 Thomas
Blach became Chairman of the Nordic Region.
Allan
Biggar
Managing Director, UK since April 2000. Allan was previously Chairman
of B-M's European Public Affairs Practice and Market Leader of the
Brussels office (1997-2000) and before that he was Managing Director
of B-M Middle East and North Africa. Biggar began in PR as director
and owner of Immediate Corporate Communications. He was a senior member
of the Liberal Democrats campaign staff.
2. 2 Locations
Head
Office
Burson-Marsteller
230 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10003
Phone: +1 212 614 4000
Fax: + 1 212 598 6928
London Office
Burson-Marsteller
24-28 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2PX
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 20 7831 6262
Fax: : +44 20 7430 1033
A complete list of the addresses of B-M offices worldwide can be obtained
from B-M’s web site[9]
and at O’Dwyers PR Daily web site[10]
2.3 Practice Structure[11]
B-M
structures its business around seven key practices or specialisations:
Advertising/creative, brand marketing, corporate/financial, healthcare,
media, public affairs and technology.
Activities within the advertising/creative practice are conducted
by three subsidiary companies. According to B-M’s web site Marsteller
Advertising is a “full-service advertising agency specializing
in corporate, business-to-business and issue-related (or public information)
communications,” whilst Burson-Marsteller Productions handles
event management and TPS “offers a wide range of communications
services, from designing and producing Web sites, interactive CD-ROMS
and presentation graphics to providing video production and broadcast
services.”
The
Brand Marketing practice employs around 150 people under the leadership
of Linda Recupero. The practice offers a wide range of services toward
the end of increasing market share for clients’ brands.
The Corporate/Financial practice handles all aspects of “perception
management” of a company – “to help top management
understand, enhance and manage the perceptions of their corporation
held by key audiences, including shareholders and the investing community,
the media and, by extension, the general public, employees and opinion
makers.”[12]
The extraordinary growth and sophistication of the healthcare industry
has prompted B-M to set up a separate practice just for healthcare
companies. The Healthcare practice offers the complete range of PR
services to healthcare companies from product marketing, to crisis
management to long term issues management around complex and controversial
subjects like biotechnology. B-M boasts that it can manage and even
create “scientific and political consensus around issues”
in the healthcare sector[13].
The
Media practice is B-M’s pool of expertise in exploiting the media
to deliver chosen messages, what they call ‘media relations’,
an essential part of any effective PR strategy. As well as ‘media
relations’ the media practice also deals with internet-based
PR, and communications training. Specialists with backgrounds in a
wide range of different media are employed to ensure access to as
many media sources as possible.
Public Affairs/ Government Relations work in the USA and Europe is
carried out by B-M’s wholly owned subsidiary, BKSH, whilst in
the rest of the world it is undertaken by B-M’s own offices
In the States BKSH’s head office is naturally in Washington DC,
B-M boasts of “strong working relationships with decision makers
and opinion leaders at the centres of power. In Washington, these
range from Congress to the White House, from the State Department
to the Pentagon, from national associations to the National Press
Club. We understand the Washington D.C. community's own unique rhythm
and set of unspoken rules, and we are skilled at negotiating for our
clients to maximum effect.”
BKSH’s European HQ is in Brussels with a network of offices in
the major European capitals each staffed with experts in the local
political systems.
Technology
was the first of the ‘practices’, formed in 1994. Concentrating
mostly on electronic technologies. Like the healthcare practice, the
technology practice provides a broad range of services, which might
otherwise be provided by other practices, specifically to companies
that need specialist knowledge of technology issues.
2.4
Subsidiaries
Black
Manafort, Stone & Kelly – a lobbying firm with offices in
Washington D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia[14]. The company keeps a
low profile. It maintains no web site and is not even mentioned on
Burson-Marsteller’s site. It is known to have worked for Phillip
Morris[15], and to have conducted lobbying on behalf of the brutal
Angolan rebel leader, Savimbi[16]
BKSH – B-M’s public affairs/lobbying subsidiary handles
most lobbying for B-M in the USA and Europe (see section 2.3 Practice
Structure above)
2.5
Key UK Personnel
Peter
Melchett
Lord Peter Melchett is the latest high profile environmentalist to
take a job at Burson-Marsteller. His move was announced in January
2002, immediately after stepping down as head of Greenpeace UK. Melchett
maintains that his new job will give him more access to corporations
in order to push his the environmental agenda[17]. The move is part
of a ‘hiring spree’ for B-M’s Corporate Social Responsibility
Unit. B-M expects Lord Melchett's extensive experience of the NGO
community, government and business to “provide unique insight
for Burson-Marsteller clients.”[18]
Des Wilson
In 1989 Wilson was awarded ITN’s ‘Environmentalist of the
Year’ prize. In his years of political work he ran the UK campaign
for lead free petrol, was Chairman of Friends of the Earth UK, directed
the Campaign for Freedom of Information and ran a general election
campaign for the Liberal Democrats. In 1993 he took the position of
Director of Public affairs and Crisis Management at B-M, with a salary
rumoured to be one of the highest in the PR industry at that time[19].
He subsequently moved to BAA.
Richard Aylard
B-M’s Corporate Social Responsibility unit is headed by Richard
Aylard. Aylard was previously head of the Soil Association, which
certifies organic food and campaigns against GM crops and pesticides[20].
Gavin Grant
Before joining B-M in November 1999, Grant was Director of Global
Corporate and Public Affairs for The Body Shop International reporting
directly to Anita and Gordon Roddick[21]. Whilst there he had responsibility
for coordinating The Body shop’s Ogoni Campaign which caused
tremendous embarrassment for B-M’s client Shell.
