OREANDA-NEWS. PBN Hill+Knowlton Strategies, the preeminent strategic communications and public relations firm specializing in the CIS, has been named Russian Consultancy of the Year by The Holmes Report.

“This award recognizes just what an outstanding year we have had since merging with Hill+Knowlton Strategies in early 2012,” said Peter B. Necarsulmer, CEO and Vice Chairman. “As we look to the future, we are well placed to make 2013 even more successful.”

Of PBN H+K, The Holmes Report said:

San Francisco-based PBN was invited by Gorbachev to open an office in Moscow, which it did on January 1, 1991. Over the next decade, the firm established offices in the capitals of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Latvia, focusing on the strategic end of the business, with particular expertise in public affairs and government relations (about 40 percent of fee income), crisis and issues management, and corporate and financial communications.

Fees were up by about 15 percent last year, with new business from AT Kearney, Baxter International, Burger King (Kazakhstan), easyJet, Etihad Airlines, Eurosport, ExxonMobil, Evraz, IKEA Shopping Centers Russia, NetApp, Proctor & Gamble, Rio Tinto, Sanofi Aventis, Skolkovo Innovation Center, TripAdvisor, and Yota Devices. And the firm remains the go-to agency for many corporate crises, mergers and acquisitions and public policy challenges.

WPP now own a majority stake, and last year merged PBN with sister agency Hill+Knowlton Strategies—although it retains its own brand and, with founder Peter Necarsulmer still at the helm, its own character.