The Academy merges with Shine Communications
Consumer PR agency The Academy has merged with Shine Communications, a move that will see the latter renamed Shine @ The Academy.
The Academy will become the name of the communications group, with Shine picking up its consumer PR offering. Mitchell Kaye and Daniel Glover, who founded The Academy in March 2014, will take a majority stake in Shine Communications and plan to extend the group into other disciplines.
Shine founder Rachel Bell will revert to the role of chairman and remain a shareholder, while Kaye will assume the role of CEO of Shine and The Academy group. Glover will become creative director of Shine and The Academy group.
Commenting on the merger Glover said: “Our mission is to build an academy of companies that brings together the brightest minds to produce the best work in their respective fields. Shine has a reputation for developing brilliant PR people and producing industry-leading creative work so fits the criteria perfectly.
"We’ve used the last couple of years to develop a way of working that delivers intelligent thinking, applied creativity and world-class connection to push the boundaries of what PR can achieve for clients. It is now time to push on and scale that approach.”
The newly merged agency will have 40 staff and a client portfolio that includes the likes of QVC, Unicef, Sony, The Royal British Legion, Indesit Hotpoint and Lionsgate.