NEW YORK—Corporate and financial communications specialist RLM Finsbury has named Michael Gross, partner and president, to succeed Walter Montgomery as chief executive officer. Montgomery, co-founder of predecessor firm Robinson Lerer & Montgomery and an architect of its merger with Finsbury in 2011, will remain active as partner, counseling corporate clients on a range of issues.

Gross is a 25-year veteran of RLM Finsbury with extensive experience managing corporate, financial and crisis communications programs for a broad range of clients including Toyota, BlackRock, Clear Channel, and Moody’s. He has developed and implemented communications strategies for a number of complex financial transactions, as well as crises including environmental problems, anti-trust and patent litigation, government investigations, regulatory issues, labor disputes and product recalls.

Prior to joining RLM in 1989, Gross was a managing director of Adams & Rinehart, a strategic communications firm; worked for several years at Mobil Corporation in public relations and finance; and was an advertising account executive with Doyle Dane Bernbach.

During the past year, RLM Finsbury ranked third globally in terms of M&A transactions worked in 2013, according to mergermarket. The firm also worked on two US Supreme Court cases, a billion-dollar class action settlement, and the resolution of major UK tax controversies, in addition to its ongoing corporate reputation and issues management, investor relations and public affairs work.