Brighter acquired by US PR firm
London-based travel PR group, Brighter, has been acquired by US independent PR firm, Finn Partners, for an undisclosed sum.
Brighter’s 22-strong team, headed up by founder and CEO Debbie Flynn, will join Finn Partners, which has its head office in New York.
Brighter will keep its name for at least five years but has immediately become ‘a Finn Partners company’.
Flynn will stay on for at least five years and becomes managing partner, reporting to Chantal Bowman-Boyles, Finn Partners’ London-based leader of EMEA, and Gail Moaney, managing partner, tourism practice leader in New York.
Brighter chairman Steve Dunne will become senior partner strategy and Fiona Jeffery, Brighter’s non-executive director, will become global tourism advisor for Finn Partners.
Founding partner Peter Finn said he had met Debbie a year ago and was impressed with Brighter’s client list and values.
He said the deal would give the US company a team of 50 people in London and confirmed it was looking to expand further in the UK and Asia.
Flynn said she had already called every client to personally tell them the news.
"They’ve all been nothing but absolutely excited for me and the team and there is a lot of anticipation about the future that being part of Finn Partners will bring for them," she added.
Flynn set up Brighter in 1995. The firm’s travel clients include Avis, Dubai, Neilson, Intrepid Travel, Jordan, Korean Air, South African Tourism and the Advantage Travel Partnership.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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