NEW YORK: A group of communications and executive recruitment veterans have launched a fractional hiring firm to give clients flexible and affordable access to senior-level comms expertise.
The firm, called CommsCollectiv, includes Charlene Wheeless, former Bechtel global corporate affairs head and PRWeek Power List regular; Monica Talan, a PR alum of AT&T and Univision; and Eric Kraus, who has spearheaded comms at Bacardi and Medtronic subsidiary Covidien.
Other founding members are Jane Randel, a senior adviser to the NFL, and Lisa Ryan, former longtime client partner at executive search firm Heyman Associates.
The agency does not have a CEO; all five employees share the cofounder title.
Fractional employment refers to specialized support, usually from a single executive, on a contractual basis. By adopting such a model, CommsCollectiv aims to provide access to expertise without the commitment or expense of a full-time hire.
“There are fractional firms out there, but there are none that are 100% focused on the communications industry,” Wheeless said. “We want to make good strategic communications available to all companies. We are democratizing senior-level expertise; that does not exist today.”
CommsCollectiv will meet with clients to assess their needs and then pair them with members of its talent bench, composed of independent or recently retired comms executives with experience in crisis management, ESG, corporate comms and investor relations.
“Many of us have been around for maybe longer than we’d like to admit…We have very deep roots and relationships in the communications industry,” Wheeless said, declining to name specific members of the firm’s talent bench.
Wheeless added that CommsCollectiv isn’t designed to compete with traditional agencies but rather to “complement” them, partnering with companies that don’t need all of the resources offered by larger firms. In some cases, CommsCollectiv may assist clients with agency reviews or searches.
CommsCollectiv will focus initially on clients in private equity and venture capital, areas that are “ripe for the type of talent” it has to provide, but the firm will also dabble in the financial industry and help startups scale, according to Wheeless.
The firm’s founders, many of whom run their own ventures and serve as external advisers, will continue in those roles as well as managing the newly launched shop.
This article was originally published in PRWeek
