By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Kitty Lagareta, president of Communications Pacific Inc,
which is back on its own again after a buyout
from Hill & Knowlton.

Isle PR firm
going it alone

Communications Pacific returns,
sans Hill & Knowlton

By Peter Wagner
Star-Bulletin

It was a marriage made in New York, where public relations giant Hill & Knowlton is based. But ten years later, Communications Pacific is reclaiming its name.

A group of senior employees at Hill & Knowlton Hawaii Inc. today acquired a majority interest in the company and resurrected its original name -- Communications Pacific.

"We wanted to have more of a say in how the company was run," said Kitty Lagareta, president of the new company. "It gives us an opportunity to own a piece of the rock."

Other Principals include Executive Vice President Alan Hoffman; Vice President Christina Kemmer; Vice President Lois Hasegawa; Senior Director Jean Dickinson; and Financial Manager Eunice Tangonan.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

But Lagareta said Hill & Knowlton Hawaii, one of 51 offices operated by Hill & Knowlton around the world, has merged with Communications Pacific, a sister agency reactivated by Hill & Knowlton parent WPP Group last year. All 20 employees will remain.

The new company will keep a reciprocal "associate" relationship with Hill & Knowlton, Lagareta said.

Some current accounts include Architects Hawaii, Fletcher Pacific, Liberty House, Mcdonalds Restaurants, and Meadow Gold Dairies.

Hill & Knowlton has 1,200 employees in 28 countries. WPP Group, the largest advertising and marketing company in the world, has more than 20,000 employees.

Sources close to the deal say conflicts arose over corporate policies at Hill & Knowlton, including hiring, pay and profit issues.

The original Communications Pacific, founded in 1969, was acquired by London-based WPP Group in 1988. The company was revived as a "boutique agency," handling accounts that Hill & Knowlton couldn't accept because of contractual conflicts.

One such account, McDonald's Restaurants, was picked up by Communications Pacific after Pepsi demanded that Hill & Knowlton not represent them both, sources say.

Bobbye Hughes McDermott, who founded Communications Pacific in 1969, is delighted the company is back in a leading role.

"It's sort of like a child," she said. "It grew up and got married, divorced, and now it's got back its name."