NEW YORK, April 23—Diane Perry, national practice director for the financial communications group at Weber Shandwick Worldwide, has joined Omnicom’s Gavin Anderson & Company as managing director and head of its financial communications group. She will lead the firm’s investor relations practice, working with clients including Zurich Financial Services, Pacific Internet Limited, and Prologis Trust, and will replace Scott Tagliarino—who left for a senior in-house position at PanAmSat in March—as the firm’s second most senior counselor in the U.S.

At Weber Shandwick, Perry managed U.S. and global programs for clients such as Eastman Kodak, WellPoint Health Networks, Cable & Wireless, and DuPont.  She has over 18 years of experience in corporate and financial communications, and t has worked on a client programs including IPO’s, M&A, corporate and executive positioning, spin-offs, bankruptcy/restructuring, financial media relations, and traditional investor relations. 

According to Gavin Anderson president Robert Mead, Perry “brings a broad range of capabilities, and has an 18-year track record of building successful financial and corporate communications practices. Her appointment represents an important step in our overall strategy to be the destination firm for strategic consulting on the issues that matter most and where the stakes are highest—in the competitive and financial markets and where policy is made.”

Her appointment is indicative of the firm’s strategy of offering integrated investor relations and corporate communications services, Mead says, citing Gavin Anderson’s recent work for Zurich Financial as an example of the approach. “When they came to us, they were looking for an IR firm to handle their ADR listing. They could have turned to a traditional IR firm and the listing would have been okay, but we told them we saw this as an opportunity to raise their corporate profile in the financial community and the competitive marketplace.
 “The integrated approach is the best one for us, because the traditional investor relations business is becoming commoditized,’ he added.