SAN FRANCISCO: Hewlett-Packard's top consumer products PR executive, Larry Sennett, has quit after 11 years to head up Ogilvy PR's global technology practice.
SAN FRANCISCO: Hewlett-Packard's top consumer products PR executive, Larry Sennett, has quit after 11 years to head up Ogilvy PR's global technology practice.
Sennett, who was largely responsible for CEO Carly Fiorina's meteoric media profile during 1999 and 2000, signed on with Ogilvy to fill the last of the firm's managing director slots.
Bob Seltzer, Ogilvy CEO, said: 'In technology, the recent market has made it extremely difficult to find a global leader. Now with Larry, we have someone with the vision and leadership experience from the corporate side to unify the practice worldwide.'
Sennett, who reports directly to Seltzer, will oversee the expansion and worldwide development of the firm's technology practice, which brings in more than dollars 44 million in annual revenues through such clients as Nokia, Qwest and Comdisco.
Sennett said of his new role: 'The most fundamental need agencies have right now is breadth and depth of experience, people to lend support and mentoring to younger employees.'
Greg Pershall, a Vancouver, WA-based member of Sennett's former team, has been named as his successor.
For Porter Novelli Convergence, the agency under which Sennett consolidated all of HP's consumer products business over the past year, the transition of power might seem troubling. However, Pershall asserted that he is not currently considering a shift in PR firms.
