Elizabeth Krupnick has been appointed by Dewe Rogerson Inc in New York as president, replacing Carol Ruth who departed in the spring.
Krupnick (47) comes to DR from Prudential Insurance, where she was chief communications officer responsible for brand management, issues management, advertising, internal communications and creative services. Before joining the Pru in 1994, she was senior vice president, corporate affairs, at Aetna Life & Casualty.
That’s a very respectable CV but Krupnick’s background sounds like less than a perfect fit with Dewe Rogerson’s existing business. ‘That’s because for some time we’ve been wanting to broaden and deepen the services we provide to clients,’ explains Nico Rogerson, chairman of Dewe Rogerson Inc and co-founder of the group. ‘We’re very strong in our existing focus – investor relations, shareholder identification and public relations for financial institutions – but we want now to add corporate communications, issues management, M&A work and so on.’
Developing this area of the business will clearly play to Krupnick’s strengths, but what about the absence of any agency experience? Rogerson is dismissive: ‘We think we know how to run agencies,’ he scoffs, adding that Krupnick’s experience of using and coordinating agencies means she brings a valuable client perspective to the business. In short, he has no doubt that Krupnick is the right choice; and he should know, given his exhaustive search: ‘I’ve seen the top people from just about all our competitor agencies,’ he claims.
