Is there something in the PR water? Ask Roxy
Yesterday saw three heavyweights of the PR industry, Roxy Jacenko, Simone Gupta, and Fiona Milliken step down (or away) from their roles, in what looks like a coordinated move to Dr Mumbo… but is it?
Milliken has been at Eleven, the TBWA PR agency since its foundation almost ten years ago, which has culminated in it being awarded Mumbrella’s Large PR Agency of the Year two years in a row, while Gupta was CEO of Havas PR and nominated for Industry Leader of the Year this year, and well, Jacenko is… the queen of PR.
Three industry titans, probably not teaming up
Three major departures in one day… in the same sector… are we about to see a new super-PR agency?
Gupta is pursuing a ‘personal project’, while Milliken is set to ‘start a new chapter’, but Jacenko says she is hanging up her PR shoes completely.
So maybe not then. Maybe it was just a coincidence.
Jacenko has delivered some of Dr Mumbo’s favourite PR headlines over the years, and while it has always been said a PR exec should not become the story, Roxy has been at the centre of them so many times over the years.
“I never went out looking to be a story,” Jacenko told the Mumbrellacast in 2019 just prior to the launch of her national TV show “I am Roxy”.
“Do I want my name in lights? No. I’d rather be rich than famous, but I’ll take both,” she quipped.
Roxy has not been shy in speaking about ditching the traditional PR playbook, much to the frustration of her industry peers in the past.
Is this her last grand PR stunt? It very well could be, but either way she will no less be missed by an industry that has not always been besties with her.
In the meantime though, Dr Mumbo looks forward to seeing what comes next for Gupta and Milliken.
