Hill+Knowlton acquires JeffreyGroup in Latin America

Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K), one of the world’s leading communications companies, announced the acquisition of JeffreyGroup, one of the leading independent corporate communications, public affairs, and marketing consulting firms in Latin America.
The company’s long-standing clients include Bayer, American Airlines, Reckitt, Amazon, Airbus, BMW, Disney, GE, Marriott, Mastercard, PepsiCo, and Salesforce. It also works with the likes of Disney Cruise Line, Citibank, Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices, etc.
It was the finalist for the Latin American Consultancy of the Year award and also received several other nominations for our Latin American SABRE Awards.
“Through this transaction, Hill+Knowlton is taking two major steps forward—becoming the preeminent global player in Latin America through the combination of highly complementary, similarly sized businesses, and creating a second growth engine for our largest industrial practice,” said AnnaMaria DeSalva, global chairman and CEO. “Latin America is one of the most dynamic communication markets today, offering a growing scope of talent and innovation.”
JeffreyGroup will keep working under its own brand image in Latin America as a part of Hill+Knowlton.
Brian Burlingame, CEO of JeffreyGroup’s since 2015, will lead H+K’s Latin American activity, enclosing the two businesses. Burlingame will report to H+K’s CEO of the Americas, Richard Millar, and join H+K’s global leadership council. Sharlach will keep serving as the company’s chairman.

Brazil-based Grupo Ideal initially was procured by H+K in the year 2015. Ricardo Cesar, who has led H+K’s Latin American operations since 2018, has been elevated to global CEO for Ideal, and charged with taking the Ideal brand and business model to the global market. He will report to DeSalva and remain a member of its global leadership council.

Cesar will work closely with Sara Gourlay, H+K’s global chair, technology+telecoms, who will keep on supervising the firm’s end-to-end technology sector growth strategy.