WASHINGTON: The Cassidy Companies will end 2001 by saying goodbye
to its most loyal employee, CEO James Fabiani.
The 20-year Cassidy veteran is leaving to set up his own shop, Fabiani &
Company, which will focus on "the intersection between government
relations and marketing for entrepreneurial corporations ... that have a
client or technology where the Federal Government could invest." He and
six employees - none of whom is coming from Cassidy - will open the shop
with a handful of unnamed clients in Washington on January 2.
Fabiani's move is the latest of many. In November, Cassidy subsidiary
Powell Tate lost EVP Mike Gelb, a founding member, who left to launch
Gelb Strategies, and Robert Bork, Jr., who walked away from his
eponymous Cassidy subsidiary to form Bork Communications. Powell Tate
president David Krawitz left to run APCO Worldwide's LA office in
October.
"It feels like the right time to go out and build something," said
Fabiani.
"The company is in good shape, but it's a different company, a changed
company."
Plans to replace Fabiani - as well as the other recently departed execs
- are on hold until January's merger with BSMG.