Bartsch joins Emerald from Sloane & Company, a leading strategic communications and investor relations firm, where she most recently served as Senior Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations and Capital Markets, advising companies on financial communications, corporate positioning, and reputation management.

Mr. Clay joins Longacre from Sloane & Company, where he spent nine years as the firm's Co-CEO and oversaw the growth of its financial and crisis communications practices.

Stagwell's Risk and Reputation Unit Will Deploy a Leading Bipartisan Team of Campaign Experts and Seasoned Corporate Advisers to Prepare Brands for the Political MinefieldBipartisan team brings together political, financial and public opinion expertsUnit leaders have experience advising 100+ Fortune 500 companies and working on 12 presidential races and 500+ Congressional and state-level racesLess than 90 days to the first Republican candidate debate and an accelerated focus on business and politicsNEW YORK and WASHINGTON, June 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With the 2024 presidential election less than 18 months away, the number of brands getting caught in the political crosshairs from the left and the right is rising fast. Companies under fire are suffering reputational hits across their core stakeholders and losing billions in sales and market capitalization.Brands can lose big if they don't understand the issues and their stakeholders and stay consistent with their values. Tweet this Stagwell's Risk and Reputation UnitStagwell's (NASDAQ: STGW) Risk and Reputation Unit's bipartisan team of political, financial, and public opinion specialists will prepare brands for the grueling political cycle and polarized society. The unit brings together experts from left-of-center strategic advisory SKDK, right-of-center digital-first agency Targeted Victory, financial communications firm Sloane & Company, creative market research firm The Harris Poll, and Stagwell's corporate leadership. It is a unique combination of political agencies working on real campaigns combined with corporate and financial leaders with deep expertise and connections. Akin to general due diligence and governance, the unit will audit all facets of a brand's public and internal perception to protect brand intangibles that make up a significant portion of the value of many companies and can be erased in a matter of days.As Stagwell CEO and chairman Mark Penn wrote in Barron's this week, companies can't duck and hope to avoid controversy in this polarized environment; they must understand their audiences and be ready to defend their values."Every business that wants to avoid becoming the next brand in the crosshairs needs to prevent their consumers from switching on their political brain and thinking they're casting a vote every time they go to the store," said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell