Carty To Run Hill: Holliday’s Financial Accounts Begins To Interview For A Successor To Fill New Business Post

In a move that underscores Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos’ commitment to a new business model, Brian Carty last week was named managing director of the shop’s growing list of financial services clients.
Carty, who will retain responsibility for the agency’s new business and human resource functions, has initiated a search for a senior executive reporting to him on new business. He has already conducted some interviews for the post.
“In the first year I was here, I probably had 150 dinners,” Carty mused last week. “For a variety of reasons, I can’t do that any longer . . . I’m really looking for someone who will be totally committed to new business and being involved in the community.”
Carty was recruited to Hill, Holliday two years ago after a brief stint as an executive recruiter. Prior to that, Carty worked at Coopers & Lybrand in Boston, where he was a client of Hill, Holliday.
Carty has been among those leading the charge at repositioning the Boston-based agency into a communications consultancy, “attacking the market in much the same way consulting companies do–by industry,” he said.
Hill, Holliday has chosen to focus on three main industry categories: financial services, high technology and healthcare. “These sectors are so complicated and convergent that to focus on them exclusively is to understand them and get closer to the bone,” Carty said.
Executive vice president Terry Carleton runs the shop’s high-tech accounts. Chief executive officer Jack Connors hinted that an announcement would be made soon regarding the appointment of an executive to oversee the agency’s healthcare clients.
Hill, Holliday’s financial services accounts, which include BankBoston, John Hancock Financial Services, Coopers & Lybrand and Fidelity Investments, represent 34 percent of the its overall revenue, said Connors.
Under traditional agency guidelines, such close competitors as John Hancock and Fidelity would be construed as a possible conflict. However, Carty argues the agency’s depth of knowledge in the industry segment benefits each client equally.