In a move to bring about increased synergy between holding company Young & Rubicam Inc.'s advertising and PR operations, subsidiary Burson-Marsteller's CEO Thomas Bell Jr. will become worldwide chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Advertising.
This is the first time in Y&R's nearly 75-year history that a PR purist, albeit a strategist, will head Y&R Advertising, which makes up about half of Y&R's annual $1.5 billion in revenue.
Bell fills the vacancy left by Ed Vick, who remains as COO of parent company Y&R Inc. Bell is considered a visionary when it comes to cutting-edge communications companies and has been instrumental in helping Y&R and BM reconfigure its business operations, which have been in a state of flux in past years.
Bell takes over the Y&R ad business after his return to BM less than four years ago. He had served as COO of BM in the early 1990s. Bell will eventually move from BM headquarters at Park Avenue South to Y&R's Madison Avenue location.
In another sign of Y&R's quest to integrate its operations, Vick also is overseeing the Y&R/WCJ partnership to better leverage Y&R's range of capabilities, from mainstream advertising to building customer support in niche markets. Wunderman Cato Johnson is a direct-marketing business, another Y&R company.
Part of the impetus for these moves is the announced retirement of Mitchell "Mitch" Kurz, chairman, client services, Y&R, Inc., and vice chairman of the corporation. Kurz also has served as a member of the eight-person management committee that grew out of the mandates set by Chairman and CEO Peter Georgescu for integrated growth.
Also Moving On and Up
Other related BM transitions include the promotion of Chris Komisarjevsky to CEO of BM Worldwide. He has spent more than two decades in the PR industry and previously headed BM's U.S. operations. But the executive shuffle at BM, which posted more than $250 million in revenue last year, also occurs during a flurry of other big-firm activity.
PR NEWS reported last week that Fleishman-Hillard, another firm owned by a holding company (Omnicom) is looking to acquire about 15 communication firms worldwide. And another Omnicom acquiree, Ketchum, just removed the words "public relations" and "worldwide" from its brand identity, which also includes a new logo.
Globally, the repositioning of communications companies continues to crest. Many of them, including BM, are basing their services' infrastructure - although not their P&L structure - on marrying disciplines as integrated communications and marketing communications mature.
Y&R first earned its reputation in advertising, purchasing BM in October 1979 for an undisclosed amount.
This year ushered in its initial public offering, so far a success (its stock was trading at 28-3/8 when the market closed Sept. 30).
Among Y&R's goals has been an increased focus on counseling clients from a multi-disciplinary slant. Blue-chip clients for which Y&R provides a range of services (from advertising to PR) include Philip Morris, still under a cloud of controversy surrounding the tobacco cases; and Ford Motor Co.
For Whom Bell Tolls
In addition to the moves of Bell and Komisarjevsky, Graham Phillips remains as chairman, but adds the role of chairman and CEO of Y&R's Diversified Communications Group. DCG is comprised of four Y&R-owned agencies: BM, investor relations boutique Cohn & Wolfe; pharmaceutical advertising agency Sudler & Hennessey; and brand design consultant Landor.
Bell previously held the slot as president and chief executive of DCG as well as BM Worldwide. A former Ogilvy executive, Phillips was recruited last October as chairman of BM after five years in semi-retirement.
Phillips began his career in the United Kingdom with the Royal Dutch Shell Group after attending the Royal Air Force College. Decades later, he is one of the key executives on the company's management committee. Also joining Phillips as a new member of that team is Linda Srere, another executive promoted as a result of upper-level changes at the company.
Srere, formerly president and CEO of Y&R, New York, has been named to chief client officer and vice chairman of Y&R Inc. She'll fill Kurz's former position.
In that role, she will manage the company's relationships with its Top 40 clients, an international slate that includes AT&T and Xerox. (Y&R, 212/210-3017; BM, 212/614-4000)