HILL & KNOWLTON RE-ORGANIZES IN TORONTO
By Adnews Staff
The international public relations giant Hill & Knowlton has melded its Decima Research division with its PR operation in Toronto. The H&K Toronto office has been re-organized into four sections, each headed by a managerial team made up of one person from Decima and one from H&K. Overseeing them all on a day-to-day basis is new general manager Jo-Anne Polak, whose background includes a stint as general manager of the Ottawa Rough Riders football club. She has moved to Toronto from Ottawa where she was general manager of H&K's office in the nation's capital. Her successor in that post has not yet been named. In her career Polak has moved from account director at a PR firm to ad agency consultant, minister's assistant in the Ontario government and radio broadcaster. Her last stop before coming to H&K was with the Rough Riders. H&K Canada's four new sections and the people heading them are: corporate communications - Lisa Ritchie (from Decima), David Wolk (H&K); government relations - Marjorie MacPherson (Decima), Doug Frith (H&K); special services Melanie Kaplan (Decima), Laurelea Conrad (H&K); marketing - Kay Richards (H&K) and a Decima person to be named later. President Michael Coates remains in charge of the whole Canadian operation of H&K.