Business Description

Overview Our mission is to be the preeminent provider of global strategic communications by uniting a diverse group of leading government relations, corporate communications and public affairs specialists around the world for the collective success of our clients, employees, and shareholders. Founded by veteran advisors with decades of experience in Washington, D.C.’s public policy and government relations landscape, we have grown and diversified our global communications advisory business through targeted acquisitions and organic growth. We designed our business to address the growing complexity and costs facing major corporate and non-profit entities in managing increasingly intricate and interdependent public policy and reputational challenges, and we now help more than 1,400 clients around the world navigate today’s complex mosaic of stakeholders across the full spectrum of corporate affairs. Our clients include nearly half of the Fortune 100. Across our growing portfolio, our specialized firms offer global strategic communications services, including government relations, corporate communications, public affairs, research, crisis management, financial communications and investor relations, and creative communications delivery. We are active in all major sectors of the economy, including healthcare and pharmaceuticals, asset management and financial services, energy, technology, telecoms and transportation. Our diverse and complementary services help clients enhance, fortify and defend their reputations, advance corporate strategy, manage regulatory risk and opportunities, and maintain productive, ongoing engagement with their most important stakeholders including federal- and state-level policy makers, investors, employees, customers, the media, and the general public. We do this in multiple jurisdictions and with our diverse and complementary capabilities. Our business comprises of three reporting segments—Government Relations Consulting, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs Consulting and Compliance and Insights Services—corresponding to the different types of strategic communications services our member companies provide to our clients: Government Relations Consulting services (which are also commonly referred to as “lobbying”) include advocacy, strategic guidance, political intelligence and issue monitoring at the US federal and state levels and in the United Kingdom through our offices in London; Corporate Communications & Public Affairs Consulting services include crisis communications, financial communications and investor relations, litigation support, community relations, social and digital media, public opinion research, branding and messaging, and relationship marketing, across the United States and internationally through our offices in London, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai; and Compliance and Insights Services include lobbying compliance services and legislative tracking. Importantly, as distinct from legacy branded competitors in our industry who have sought to be all-in-one providers of strategic communications services to their clients, we deliver complementary strategic communications services through stand-alone firms. Each of our firms is recognized for excellence in its respective area of expertise, and is incentivized to collaborate and to partner with each of our other firms while maintaining a strong focus on its specialized services. Our business model allows us to deliver both the scale and reach of those all-in-one providers and also the higher standards of quality, service, creativity, and nimbleness that traditionally have been the domain of smaller boutiques. We seek to eliminate for clients the traditional trade-off between scale and quality, and our growth demonstrates that our business model is well-suited to the needs and preferences of modern clients. Since our inception in 2014, we have acquired and integrated numerous businesses specializing in key facets of the global strategic communications market. Under our holding company, we now operate as 12 member companies in the United States and the United Kingdom, with expanding reach into Europe and parts of Asia and the Middle East.…