Founded in 1989, it’s fair to say that Beckerman labored in relative obscurity for most of its first two decades, quietly building a reputation for client service and attention to detail without ever generating more than a blip on the collective radar of those firms located just across the Hudson from its Hackensack headquarters.

All that has changed over the past two or three years, however. Without abandoning the values upon which the agency was built, Beckerman has begun to build a reputation in a handful of sectors (real estate, professional services, clean tech) and practice areas (public affairs) where it has a real depth of expertise; to expand via acquisition (buying west coast technology specialist Antenna Group) and the opening of a new office in Washington, D.C.; and to emerge as one of the country’s fastest-growing independent PR firms, with 32 percent growth last year taking it past $6 million in fee income for the first time.

The majority of that revenue is derived from the real estate sector, which includes a diverse range of partnerships with leading companies in the commercial, residential, retail, industrial and mixed-use sectors, including brokers, developers, REITs, private equity firms and service providers, and the clean tech arena, where the Antenna acquisition added expertise in solar, smart grid, energy efficiency, energy storage, transportation, biofuels, and green building.

Beckerman serves more than 100 clients, including Solar 3D, Intersolar, Jinko Solar, Solar Junction, Upsolar, Xzeres Wind, Zep Solar, Hypersolar, Solar 3D, Dyesol, ABS Partners, Avidan Management, Bridges to Recovery, Centaur, Champion Retail, Claremont, PetraSolar, First Potomac Realty, Geogenix, Hollister Construction, ING Real Estate, Lender’s Group, Morristown Development, NY Spring Water, Passport Potash, Langan Energy/River Drive, Solis Partners, Sotheby’s Stein, Stowe Mountain, Triple Five and CoStar Group.

The leadership team includes president Keith Zackheim, who took the helm in June of 2009 after agency founder Michael Beckerman acquired his firm, Avalanche Strategic Communications, known for its digital and social media expertise; senior vice president and general manager Allyne Mills, who was hired from Taylor in 2010 (she previously worked at Edelman and Allison & Partners); Caroline Venza, senior VP and general manager of Antenna; senior vice president Naomi Dector, as expert in crisis and litigation communications and public affairs, who joined from Brunswick to lead the DC office; and Christa Segalini, vice president in the real estate practice.