CANNES--Enero, the Australian holding group previously known as Photon, has drafted in the heads of its two UK PR firms to join a new global leadership team as it eyes renewed international expansion.

The team features Frank PR chairman Graham Goodkind and Hotwire CEO Brendon Craigie, along with the heads of three other Enero firms: Naked Communications, BMF and The Leading Edge.

Enero CEO Matthew Melhuish told the Holmes Report that the new team is an attempt to make the company more collaborative, and continue the revitalisation of a company that has suffered considerable financial woe. Photon previously divested a number of agencies, after an aggressive shopping spree brought it to the brink of collapse.

“What I’ve done is change the way business is being run,” said Melhuish, the BMF co-founder who took charge of Enero at the start of this year. “It was a financial instrument and each business did it’s own thing. What’s changed is to make it a more joined-up entity.”

“We’ve got a board now - the people who run the key businesses now have a hand in running the group,” he added. “I want the people who run the best businesses to run the group.”

Melhuish also said that collaboration between firms, which has rarely seemed a priority at Photon, would not be “forced.” “Once you create the right context, making people feel empowered, there’s a forum of trust.”

The Enero CEO also forecast continued global expansion at Hotwire, which recently launched in the US, and said that further international plans are on the cards for Frank PR, which also has an Australian office. “There’s an opportunity to go to other geographies at the right time in the right way.”

Melhuish also stated that Frank founders Goodkind and Andrew Bloch will remain at the firm following the end of their earn-out last year. “They are incentivised to stay with the business,” he said. “And they’ve signalled their strong intent to stay with the business. As we’re going through the Enero process, we’re re-examining lots of things.”

“Now that all of the uncertainty from the Photon days is behind us, we are committed to Frank and really excited about the future,” added Goodkind.

Enero now has around 1,000 people, working at 12 agencies across 20 countries. Its hubs are London, New York and Sydney, and it is exploring a fourth hub in Sao Paolo.