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Kekst and Company
From SourceWatch
Kekst and Company is a public relations firm founded by Gershon Kekst in 1970.
The Holmes Report describes the firm as "focused on strategic communications consulting, as well as on traditional corporate and financial relations." The firm's experience includes communications around "mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, bankruptcies, litigation matters, management transitions and corporate governance issues, earnings surprises and other financial disclosures, demutualizations, labor disputes, regulatory issues, IPOs and listings." [1]
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TXU Buyout
"The biggest leveraged buyout in history was notable not only for its finances, but also for its unusual feature of having multiple PR firms advising both sides of the deal simultaneously," PR Week wrote in February 2007. The Dallas-based energy company TXU will be purchased by three equity firms for $45 billion. The PR firm Public Strategies, Inc. advised both TXU and its purchasers, as did the firm Kekst and Company. Texas Pacific, one of the purchasers, also used Owen Blicksilver PR. [2]
O'Dwyer's PR Daily noted that "the buyout is expected to face regulatory, political and environmental concerns and the parties involved immediately moved to head off any immediate fallout," including by securing endorsements from Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The companies promised "a $400M investment in conservation over the next five years," and appointed former Secretary of State James Baker as chair of an "advisory group on climate change." [3]
Clients
"Kekst represents corporations in virtually every major industry, ranging from financial services (banking, insurance, investment banking, private equity) to telecommunications, heavy manufacturing, defense, professional services, energy, food and agriculture, healthcare, retailing and consumer products," according to the Holmes Report. "The firm’s client roster includes a substantial number of non-U.S. companies, based in Europe, Japan and South America. As a matter of policy, Kekst does not publish a client list." [4]
Partners
From the firm's website (accessed March 2, 2007): [5]
- Gershon Kekst
- Thomas J. Davies
- Mark A. Semer
- Jeremy Fielding
- Lawrence A. Rand
- Ruth E. Pachman
- Caroline N. Gentile
- Kimberly Kriger
- James N. Fingeroth
- Roy H. Winnick
- Victoria A. Weld
- David A. Lilly
- Robert D. Siegfried
- Dawn Dover
- Eric A. Berman
- Joseph Y. Kuo
- Jeffrey Z. Taufield
- Michael Freitag
- Michael Herley
- Micheline S. Tang
- Fredric J. Spar
- Thomas E. Fogarty
- Michal Chafets
- M. Lin-Hua Wu
- Lissa Perlman
- Wendi A. Kopsick
- Molly A. Morse
- Roanne M. Kulakoff
- Adam S. Weiner
- Andrea E. Calise
Contact Information
Kekst and Company
437 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Website: www.kekst.com
Phone: 212-521-4800
SourceWatch Resources
External links
- Paul Holmes, "On Corporate Character: A Conversation with Gershon Kekst", Holmes Report, Volume 5 Number 4,January 24, 2005.
- "PS Aids Huge TXU Buyout Deal," O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), February 27, 2007.
- Hamilton Nolan, "TXU deal uses double-sided PR," PR Week, February 28, 2007.
