Weber Shandwick Financial Set For Further International Growth

Thursday, June 19, 2008 NEW YORK & LONDON – June 19, 2008 – Ian Bailey, UK Managing Director of Weber Shandwick Financial, will be taking on additional responsibility for growing Weber Shandwick’s international financial communications and investor relations capabilities. In his new role as Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Weber Shandwick Financial, Bailey will relocate to New York in July 2008 and will work closely with Weber Shandwick’s U.S. Corporate Issues Group and Corporate Practice to further develop and market Weber Shandwick’s international financial communications and investor relations capabilities. 

Bailey will divide his time between London and New York operations and will have joint reporting lines to UK CEO & EMEA co-CEO Colin Byrne and Executive Vice President & New York Office General Manager Paul Jensen. Bailey will continue to lead Weber Shandwick Financial in the UK and serve as a member of Weber Shandwick’s UK senior management team, while the 40-strong UK-based team and day-to-day financial practice operations will be led by Weber Shandwick Financial’s Deputy Managing Director, Steve McCool.

Commenting on the appointment, Weber Shandwick President Andy Polansky said: “The need to consistently and effectively engage with financial stakeholders across multiple markets has never been a more critical challenge for participants in today’s global economy. In such an environment, a clear opportunity exists to build on Weber Shandwick’s market-leading position in corporate and financial communications on a global scale. Ian will focus on further developing Weber Shandwick Financial’s capabilities to meet our clients’ growing financial communications and investor relations needs wherever they and their stakeholders may be located.”

The move follows a period of sustained diversification and growth in Weber Shandwick’s international financial communications business and client portfolio, with an increasing number of companies and organizations from around the globe appointing Weber Shandwick to assist with local and international financial markets-related communications activities. In the past two years, Weber Shandwick Financial has managed both local market and international financial communications and investor relations programs for clients in a wide variety of locations including: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, UAE, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zambia. Additionally, the New York and London financial teams are working together on a growing number of transatlantic clients, projects and transactions.

Bailey joined Weber Shandwick in London in 2005. He has more than 17 years of finance, financial communications and investor relations experience, including senior agency positions with leading agencies in London, Chicago, San Francisco and New York.

Ian Bailey commented: “Weber Shandwick Financial’s proven expertise in communications relating to international capital flows, coupled with the power and reach of our highly effective international network is proving to be a compelling market proposition. There are clearly many opportunities which Weber Shandwick Financial is uniquely qualified to capture. I look forward to working with the U.S. and UK teams to build on our many successes to date and develop even closer ties and collaboration between the agency’s operations in the two of the most important financial centers in the world.” About Weber Shandwick
Weber Shandwick is one of the world's leading global public relations firms with offices in major media, business and government capitals around the world. The firm specializes in strategic marketing communications, media relations, public affairs, reputation management, and crisis and issues management. It also offers corporate communications counseling services. The firm provides specialized integrated services including Web relations, advocacy advertising, market research and visual communications. Weber Shandwick received the highest client-satisfaction honors in the 2007 Agency Excellence Survey by PRWeek U.S. and in 2006, was named Large PR Firm of the Year (PR News U.S.), European Consultancy of the Year (The Holmes Report) and Network of the Year (Asia Pacific PR Awards). The firm also won the 2005, 2006 and 2007 United Nations Grand Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Relations. To learn more, please visit www.webershandwick.com.

Weber Shandwick is a unit of The Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), which is one of the world's leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies.