LONDON, March 20— Alastair Gornall, who stepped down last year as CEO of Consolidated Communications, has joined forces with Rupert Ashe, former chief executive of GCI Financial in the U.K., and Mark Madsen, who led a mergers and acquisition consultancy specializing in PR deals. Madsen Gornall Ashe will provide business counsel to the PR industry.
 
For agencies, MGA will provide M&A advice and a range of business consultancy, including CEO mentoring, market research, strategy development and profit improvement. Over the past decade, Madsen has assisted in the sale several agencies, most recently QBO and Harvard Public Relations to Chime and Propeller Direction and Lexicon Communications to Lexis.
 
MGA is also developing a register of approved suppliers for follow-on work in areas such as training and development, search and selection, information technology, and property advisory.
 
For corporations, MGA will provide communications audits, agency search and selection and benchmarking studies, and advice designed to improve the power and value of a corporation’s in-house communications efforts, while ensuring profitable and rewarding relationships with agencies
 
“We aim to be the business advisors of choice to the marketing community,” says Gornall. “We will initially focus on the public relations industry, helping agencies grow and guiding corporations on their PR spend. By assembling partners who have been in the thick of it—building and selling communications businesses—we feel that MGA will provide strategic advice that will help agencies accelerate their development.”