Cannings Purple expands IR team

Cannings Purple, which is ranked as Western Australia’s second largest public and investor relations firm, has bolstered its team by recruiting experienced business journalist Peter Klinger.

Mr Klinger, who will join Cannings Purple’s investor relations team as an associate director, is one of several journalists to have left The West Australian’s business desk in recent months.

Other departees include agribusiness specialist Brad Thompson, who joined Cannings Purple earlier this year as a special counsel.

Mr Klinger’s move means Cannings Purple will have eight consultants focused on investor relations.

In total, the firm has 21 consultants, putting it just behind long-standing market leader PPR, according to data in the BNiQ Search Engine.

This move comes after reports that the investor relations teams at PPR and Cannings Purple were to be merged, to allow PPR in Perth to align with the consumer focus of its east coast offices.

The proposal reflected the fact global marketing communications firm WPP owns 100 per cent of PPR and 49 per cent of Cannings Purple.

However, it has not proceeded, with the management and directors of Cannings Purple, who retain a majority stake, charting their own course.

The growth at Canning Purple contrasts with major restructuring at PPR, with several members of its IR team leaving recently, after the prior departure of long-serving Perth boss Peter Harris.

The exiting IR consultants included Tony Dawe, who recently joined Citadel-MAGNUS.  

Mr Hazeldine, a former 40under40 award winner, said having someone as highly respected as Mr Klinger join the team added to its depth of experience.

Mr Klinger has more than 20 years’ newspaper experience, including at The Times in London, The Australian Financial Review, and more recently as business editor of The West Australian and thewest.com.au.

"The rapidly changing media landscape makes this an exciting and challenging time to be helping clients to get their message to cut through,” Mr Klinger said in a statement.

Mr Hazeldine also announced the promotion of Andrew Rowell to director – investor relations and Michael Cairnduff as associate director.