White Adds Partners After Baldacci Exit

Following the departure of president Steve Baldacci, White & Baldacci has named five new partners and changed its name to White & Partners.

Baldacci, who had been a minority partner in the Herndon, Va., independent, left the agency in August to start a sports-marketing firm called Baldacci Communications in Tysons Corner, Va. Previously president of business operations for the Washington Redskins football team, he joined what was then E. James White Communications in December 2002.

CEO Matthew White said the agency wanted to return its focus to traditional advertising and so Baldacci, who couldn’t be reached, decided to pursue sports marketing on his own. Baldacci took the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority account with him. The authority was formed in 2003 in an effort to get the Montreal Expos to relocate to the Northern Virginia/ Washington, D.C., area. Account billings were estimated at less than $500,000.

The new minority partners at White are Carrie Edwards, evp; James Upson, CFO and COO; Bill Puckett, ecd; Jose Banzon, svp of client services; and Mike Smith, svp and managing director of public relations. All were with the company before Baldacci’s departure. White said he would not hire another president to replace Baldacci. White, son of the company’s founder, E. James White, remains the majority owner of the agency.

The 50-person shop’s clients include Virginia Tourism, the Washington National Opera and the Department of Defense.