WASHINGTON DC: Shandwick International has bought Rowan and Blewitt
(R&B), a crisis management firm which operates in the US capital.
The move is a further boost to Shandwick’s DC office, which earlier this
month trebled in size with the acquisition of public affairs group
Cassidy Companies for between pounds 43 and pounds 50 million.
R&B claims to have worked with more than 30 of the Fortune 100
companies.
It employs 25 full time consultants, and clients include Exxon, General
Motors, Eastman Kodak, Bic and Novartis.
R&B was founded 15 years ago by former NBC television correspondent Ford
Rowan and former newspaper reporter and corporate spokesman Rich
Blewitt.
Blewitt remains president of R&B, which will retain its brand name, and
both he and Rowan will be executive vice presidents of Shandwick
International.
They will report to Shandwick US chief executive Michael
Petruzzello.
’Being our size does not enable us to fully serve an international
corporation the way we will be able to as part of Shandwick,’ said
Blewitt.
