In 2002, before Edelman Public Relations Worldwide absorbed Atlanta’s Headline Group, the Chicago-based firm had 17 employees in a downtown Atlanta office.
Now, it has about 100, according to a company blog post.
At the time, Claudia Gaines Patton, founder of Headline Group, said she “didn’t hesitate for a minute” on the decision to join Edelman. Ten years later, she still feels the same way, in part because of the relationship she built with the founder and namesake of the larger PR company, Daniel J. Edelman.
“I met Dan over a decade ago when he purchased my firm,” said Patton, chief talent officer and former president of Edelman Southeast. “He was an early pioneer in our field — a trailblazer. He was fiercely independent and always did right by his clients. Every interaction I had with him resulted in a lesson learned and an inspirational charge to be the best, be bold and yet remain humble.”
Edelman, 92, died early Tuesday of heart failure, according to his wife, Ruth.
Edelman’s company opened its Atlanta office in 1994. Edelman retired as CEO in 1996, handing the reins to his son, Richard.
Born in New York, Edelman graduated from Columbia University. He was a newspaper editor and reporter before he was drafted during World War II. He moved to Chicago in 1947 as PR director for a hair care company.
Edelman started his own company in a small office in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart in 1952, with his previous employer as his first client. He would go on to develop many of the practices that have become standard in the public relations field.
He forged early publicity for companies that would later become household names, including Sara Lee and KFC, and created a number of successful gimmicks, including the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line and the use of celebrity endorsements.
The firm expanded rapidly in the U.S. through the 1960s and opened its first office outside North American in 1968. Today, Edelman has 65 offices, 4,400 employees worldwide, and is the country’s largest public relations firm.
