Blog - Mahony Partners

Mar

2012

Win Neuger’s Long Reign and Hasty Exit

Financial Services, Taking & Managing Risk

Win Neuger was hastily shown the door yesterday, ending his tenure as CEO of PineBridge Investments, the former asset management group at AIG. Neuger joined AIG from Bankers Trust Company in 1995. This news didn’t make many waves, but it’s odd in several ways. Neuger’s last day as CEO was yesterday, the same day the news was announced, which is an unusually quick exit for a CEO. David Jiang, formerly of Bank of New York Mellon, was named the new CEO. Neuger will serve as vice chairman. Sudden executive movements are generally discouraged in the asset management world becaus... Read More

Mar

2012

Psst! I’ve Got a Secret

Uncategorized

ISDA's Media Comment blog offers a great critique of the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the process to determine whether Greek sovereign credit default swaps have experienced a credit event as a result of the country's latest debt restructuring. Read More

Mar

2012

Goldman’s next PR Chief

Financial Services, Taking & Managing Risk

Somewhere inside Goldman Sachs a managing director in human resources is anxiously leafing through a stack of resumes looking for a candidate to replace PR chief Lucas van Praag, who retires at the end of March. There’s been little news since Lucas’s departure leaked a month ago and a former Treasury staffer was tipped as his likely replacement, suggesting the firm hasn’t yet inked a deal. So before Goldman writes a big check for his signing bonus and measures his office for new carpet and curtains at 200 West Street, there is time to reflect on just what sort of PR s... Read More

Feb

2012

Time for a Memorial to the Unknown Dead of 9/11?

Uncategorized

It was appalling to read news reports that US Air Force officials dumped the remains of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks in a landfill. I can think of nothing more distressing for a victim’s family, nor shameful for a country, than to learn that these remains were treated so carelessly. Perhaps the time has come to create a permanent “memorial to the unknowns” from the tragedy, just as we have done for the unknown dead of past conflicts. Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the start of th... Read More

Feb

2012

Waiting for Bob Diamond’s Bonus

Financial Services, Taking & Managing Risk

We don’t yet know how much Bob Diamond was paid for running Barclays last year. We do know the bank will cap cash bonuses at £65,000 (about $100,000), joining a growing list of banks that have bowed to shareholder and public pressure to curb payouts. Barclays could have reported Diamond’s compensation yesterday, but it decided to stick with the tradition of announcing it when the bank’s annual report is released next month. By waiting, Barclays missed a chance to underscore its commitment to shareholder value, and it left Diamond himself in t... Read More

Feb

2012

It’s All Business on the Groupon Investor Call

Taking & Managing Risk

Three months after its IPO, Groupon reported earnings that were good but not as good as many expected, and the shares tumbled. You might expect the management team to be rattled and strike a defensive tone on its conference call with investors. Instead, the call was all business: detailed, candid and orderly. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason and CFO Jason Child took every question, walked people through the numbers and tempered their optimism with facts. The focus was on the business performance; the stock price was barely mentioned. That’s a big contrast compared to the technology boom of a dozen yea... Read More

Feb

2012

Liam McGee needs a communication strategy – fast

Financial Services, Taking & Managing Risk

Insurance company earnings calls are normally staid affairs. But Hartford Financial Group had a sudden burst of excitement yesterday as its largest shareholder, hedge fund titan John Paulson, joined the call. He hammered CEO Liam McGee for not being more specific about his plans for increasing shareholder value at the company, which saw its shares sink by 39% last year. Paulson said: "I know you’re doing a strategic review but there’s no slide talking what about what the potential would be, just that there’s challenges. Goldman Sachs came out with, I think, a very goo... Read More

Feb

2012

Love, Leadership and the New York Giants

Taking & Managing Risk

In an interview after the Super Bowl, New York Giants Head Coach Tom Coughlin reflected on his team’s remarkable success. Coughlin’s secret for brining out the best in his players was simple: he told them he loved them. According to the New York Post, Coughlin recalled his speech to his players the night before the game, saying: “This is a very special team, and it was appropriate at this point in time to let them know how I felt about them…. So they didn’t have any question in their mind that I deeply appreciated what they accomplished, where they’ve co... Read More

Feb

2012

Defending Goldman Sachs: The 5 reasons its PR has triumphed under Lucas van Praag

Advertising, Crisis, Financial Services, Media

Lucas van Praag, the longtime communications chief at Goldman Sachs, is stepping down. To those of us in the PR trade, this news yesterday was much more significant than Facebook's IPO filing and the legion of twentysomething millionaires it will spawn. Van Praag has done a brilliant job of defending Goldman and handling the outsized egos that walk its halls. Goldman is smart, arrogant, highly successful and envied – qualities that make it a PR challenge, every day. No one has handled it better. (Disclosure: I’ve known Lucas for a long time, and sought his help whe... Read More

Feb

2012

The water keeps rising around James Murdoch

Crisis, Media

Attorneys for News Corporation investigating the phone-hacking scandal at the now-defunct UK tabloid News of the World revealed today that emails warning of widespread hacking were deleted from James Murdoch's computer. The New York Times reports: "Rupert Murdoch’s son Read More