When a large merger reaches the market, Joele Frank often finds FGS Global, FTI Consulting or Kekst CNC advising elsewhere on the deal. Frank enjoys the contest. When Fox Corporation agreed to acquire The Roku Channel in a $22 billion transaction, FGS Global advised Fox and Frank’s firm advised Roku.
“One of the things I’ve always stressed is that we need strong competition for the PR industry to exist,” she said.
How the Firm Is Owned
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher is independent. Its partners own it, and Frank has noted that a firm inside a conglomerate can be split up by its parent one day. She started the firm in early 2000 after leaving Abernathy MacGregor, where she owned basically none of the equity.
“We are independent owners with one P&L and that means everyone is equal in that environment,” Frank said.
The partner group at Joele Frank is largely homegrown. Of the 26 partners, Frank estimates half to three-quarters rose through the firm, many of them right out of college, and total headcount is above 200. Only one founder has retired, in 2011. Mergermarket’s PR advisory league tables track the firm and its rivals by deal value and deal count.
What the Firm Offers
Joele Frank began as an M&A specialist and changed course within a year. “You know what we learned in our first year? At the end of a deal, guess what happens if you’re only in M&A? You lose the client,” Frank said. The partners added investor relations, public relations and activism defense.
Design became another service. Many companies lack the in-house resources for graphic and digital projects, Frank said, so the firm took on slide decks for investor days and other major presentations.
“This type of work is a defining aspect of the identity of a company,” she said.
Credibility as the Product
Frank came to the field from corporate finance, with stops at Allied Chemical and AT&T before she learned financial PR at Adams & Rinehart and moved on to Abernathy MacGregor. She ties the firm’s standing to trust, both in the companies it advises and among everyone those companies deal with.
“We sell credibility. If we aren’t credible, the clients aren’t going to hire us. And if we don’t help the clients be credible, it doesn’t work,” she said.
She spends little time on her own reputation in the field, even though O’Dwyer’s editor-in-chief Kevin McCauley calls her the first lady of financial PR. From 22 Vanderbilt, Joele Frank still meets its rivals one deal at a time.
