New York-based public relations firm Ketchum, which has an office in Los Angeles, is unveiling a satellite office in OC after the New Year.
Ketchum will open shop in a suite at 19000 MacArthur Blvd. early this month,a move to serve its growing OC client base, which includes HomeBase, Lantronix and Vision Solutions, all of Irvine, and Lake Forest-based Ethentica.
Sean Fitzgerald, a senior vice president at Ketchum, said the firm also wants to tap into the “wealth of talented public relations professionals in OC who are understandably adverse to commuting to LA.”
“We believe the era of the LA-OC commute is rapidly coming to a close,” Fitzgerald said. “This move will allow us easier access to our Orange County-based clients, the opportunity to attract qualified Orange County employees and establish a beachhead in what we believe is a burgeoning market.”
Initially, the new office will have seven employees from Ketchum’s technology, brand and corporate practice groups. However, in the future, the public relations firm, which reported 2000 LA billings of $18 million to $20 million, compared with its 1999 total of $16 million, expects to grow its OC staff count.
Ketchum’s Irvine location will be added to its portfolio of worldwide offices, which include Sacramento, San Francisco, Glendale and Los Angeles. Headquartered in New York, Ketchum, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc., is said to be the seventh-largest public relations firm in the world with more than 1,200 employees.
