Art Stevens Managing Partner
Former PR Agency CEO, Author & Consultant
Art Stevens literally knows the PR industry at every
level and in every aspect, from the inside out and from
foundation to pinnacle. Art knows what makes a PR
business successful, profitable and valuable. A prolific
writer as well as a dynamic executive, Art is subtle,
observant and quietly creative, yet not opposed to a
good measure of “brandstanding” when appropriate.
Art’s achievements include…
• Receiving the “John Hill Award” by the New York Chapter of PRSA in 2002 for his contributions to the public relations profession
• Being elected president of Pinnacle Worldwide, one of the top three global networks of independent PR firms
• Consulting with PR agency owners on growth, profitability and new business development since he left the Publicis organization
• Earning industry plaudits for his presentation to PRSA Counselors Academy spring conference attendees in Vancouver in 2003 on the subject “How To Make More Money Than You Ever Dreamed Of”
• Founding and heading LobsenzStevens, which grew to the top ranks among independent PR firms in the U.S. before being acquired by Publicis Groupe in 1999
• Being elected to the Communications Alumni Hall of Fame of the City College of New York in 2001 for lifetime achievement • Coining the term “brandstanding” in the widely acclaimed article for Harvard Business Review
• Authoring “The Persuasion Explosion”, a book dealing with the role and influence of contemporary public relations practices
Rick Gould, CPA, J.D. Managing Partner
Acknowledged Expert in Benchmarking Studies & Best Practices
Rick Gould, CPA, J.D. believes that breakthrough results
are created via the “merger” of education and experience.
His passion for education is what fueled his 20+ year
commitment to creation and administration of his annual
“PR Agency Best Practices/Benchmarking survey”
and the reports that follow.
Rick has exhibited this passion for learning in his own
career. Starting his own CPA firm in his twenties Rick
went on to get his MBA, law degree and now is pursuing
a Series 79 Investment Banking License, as well as taking
courses at Harvard Law School.
Rick’s achievements include…
• Representing over 100 PR firms as CPA & Financial/Management Consultant
• Creating, managing, and interpreting the “Financial Benchmarking/Best Practices” annual survey for the past 22 years
• Being featured in Crains, PRWeek, AdWeek, HOW Magazine, and other creative services publications
• Authoring: “The Comprehensive Guide to Public Relations Management”; over 100 articles on management issues
• Reviewing and reporting the annual ranking of PR firms for the Council of PR firms for 5 years until it was discontinued as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley
• Providing expert witness testimony to support litigation valuation
• Served on the graduate faculty of Parsons School of Design for 4 years teaching the course he created, “Entrepreneuring: The Business of Creative Business”
• Holds an Executive Juris Doctor degree from the Concord University School of Law
• Ongoing participant in the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation
Ted Pincus Managing Partner
Master Facilitator in Mergers & Acquisitions
In Memorium – StevensGouldPincus mourns the loss
and celebrates the life of its partner Ted Pincus. Pincus
fought a valiant 2 year battle against cancer. He died at
his home in Chicago on Friday, September 30, 2011.
Pincus, the founder of The Financial Relations Board,
which he sold to Interpublic in 1999, joined forces with
Art Stevens, Rick Gould and Mike Muraszko to become one
of the managing partners of StevensGouldPincus in 2004.
Among his many awards was being named PR Professional of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America in 2002. He was a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and an adjunct finance professor at the DePaul University MBA program. He was a valued consultant to the Obama presidential campaign in 2008.
At SGP, Pincus used his considerable experience, knowledge and contacts to help facilitate mergers and acquisitions in the PR agency industry as well as providing his consulting talents to many agencies.
“Ted was our partner, friend and mentor,” said the partners of StevensGouldPincus in a joint statement. “We worked together for more than seven years and he approached his assignments with dedication and a unique sense of humor. He helped put our firm on the map in the PR industry and gave us the added clout he carried with buyers and sellers.”
We are fortunate that we had the privilege of working very closely with Ted these past seven years. His wisdom, passion and wit became part of our culture.
We will miss him.
Ted’s achievements include…
Named by PR Week as one of the 20th Century’s most influential communications industry figures, Ted Pincus was named in 2002 as the PR Professional of the Year by PRSA. Over his 50-year career he built The Financial Relations Board LLC as the nation’s third largest independent PR agency, and as the oldest and largest Investor Relations firm. When he sold it in 2000 for $40 million to what is now Interpublic, his agency was representing over 3 percent of all listed publicly held companies in the U.S., served by a staff of 300
His firm was accorded more awards for outstanding IR programming by PRSA and other organizations than any other firm in the history of the IR industry. More important, the transparent disclosure policies and best practices FRB innovated and advocated are in wide usage today.
At the same time, Pincus served as an advisor to Nasdaq, The U.S. Information Agency, USAID and others. The author of three books, he has also written for The NY Times, Wall St. Journal, Fortune and other business publications. A long time trustee of The Gateway Foundation, he has served on six non-profit and four corporate boards. He is the recipient of lifetime achievement awards from Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, Nasdaq, PRSA and the American Jewish Committee. Since selling his agency, Pincus had been the business columnist of The Chicago Sun Times, a Finance Professor at DePaul University MBA program, an independent communications counsel to Fortune 500 companies, and a managing partner of StevensGouldPincus. During the latest presidential campaign, he served on the Obama Economic Policy Committee.
Mike Muraszko Partner
Authority in M&A Research Identification & Matching
Mike Muraszko has 35 years of seasoned, insightful public
relations industry experience. Spending more than 25
years as a senior PR agency executive, Mike provides
outstanding perspective to PR firm owners and principals
on their M&A and strategic counsel needs. An expert in
thorough, highly focused research to facilitate the optimum
potential match of PR agency buyer and seller, he enables
SGP to maximize the best, most synergistic business
combinations. His expertise in agency marketing,
positioning, client relations, staffing, and operational issues also gives Mike the opportunityto provide value-added consulting services to many SGP clients.
Mike’s achievements include…
• Serving as senior vice president/deputy managing director of global PR firm MS&L in its 100 staff Los Angeles office, and heading its Western U.S. public affairs operations during a period of record agency growth
• Being selected as StevensGouldPincus’ first senior associate in 2004, and subsequently being named an equity partner of StevensGouldPincus in July 2007
• Founding and heading VantagePoint Strategies, a Los Angeles-based corporate communications management consultancy serving private and public small-and micro-cap companies
• Counseling corporate, government, and association public relations clients around the U.S. for decades by applying his senior expertise in public affairs, crisis communications, and issues management.
• Managing new business, marketing, and recruitment functions for other major, independent public relations firms in Dallas, Houston, and Washington, DC during his 30-year career
• Facilitating seed funding investment for private, start-up energy and environmental-related business ventures
• Being elected as a past president of the Public Relations Society of America/Los Angeles Chapter; being twice honored with PRSA’s Silver Anvil Award for Public Affairs; and serving as guest lecturer on public relations strategies and tactics at both UCLA and Pepperdine University
• Being voted a member of the National Press Club in Washington DC, and the City Club of Los Angeles; and serving on multiple non-profit and philanthropic organization advisory boards in the Southern California region.