She describes herself as "too grounded" for the career she almost had in the theatre, but dressed in an informal black turtleneck sweater, it becomes clear that technology PR to Aedhmar Hynes is as much about creativity as it is business.

Hynes, a 34-year old veteran of Britain's second largest independent PR firm Text 100, became one of PR's youngest CEOs in October last year when the Text 100 Group restructured its executive board and changed its name to OneMonday. The company's long-time CEO Tim Dyson passed the mantle to Hynes, while he took the reins at OneMonday.

It was her mixture of creative flair and a solid background in commerce - she graduated with a degree in English and Economics - and a solid management track record, that brought her true talents to the attention and recognition of the then CEO, and something for which she has become known. Matthew Ravden, Text 100 regional president for Asia-Pacific and a colleague of 10 years, says that although she has a creative mind, she remains hard-nosed on management issues.

"She doesn't suffer fools," he says.

"On the one hand, she is very warm and a sociable person and puts people at ease, but on the other hand, she sets very high standards for herself and expects the same of others. She is tough and fair. A manager who is tough but not fair is not liked, but a manager who is fair but not tough is just weak. She combines both."

Hynes comes to the job having spent the past three years as president of Text 100's US operations, which she established in 1997.

Starting in San Francisco with a small operation, Hynes built a US$10 million network and established her credentials as a capable manager.

"From there, we decided we were going to take the US market seriously and were going to expand significantly," she says.

The mission she takes over is one of global organic expansion and a process of localising each of the company's 25 offices in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific.

"In each market we've gone into, we have hired people in the local market who have worked in PR for a significant amount of time so we build a reputation as a strong local agency. That is critical," she says, "because it is those collectve local agencies that are going to be the thing that a global company will look at when appointing a company like Text 100."

Strong roots
Text 100 has grown significantly over the past 10 years under Tim Dyson, partly by executing some unusual strategies.

The London listing last year was one of the few successful PR agency public flotations and saw the company's share price spiral upwards from 140p to 508p as APRN goes to press, fuelled by revenue growth of 42 per cent to US$38 million last year.

With some pride, Hynes boasts of the fact that when many European agencies were negotiating to be acquired by US firms, Text 100 was venturing stateside to establish a US presence.

"At that time, it was unusual," she says.

The strategy paid off and the company is now almost a top 20 agency in PR Week's global rankings and the fourth largest hi-tech firm in the world.

Hynes takes over a successful business model and says she is keen to maintain the core of Text's success, which is employee ownership.

"Our philosophy as a company is to create ownership for our people. We give stock options to over 30 per cent of our staff. The premise has always been that the people in the company run it rather than a few people at the top.

"For a long time in the US, we were competing with dotcoms for staff, so we were one of the few PR agencies who were able to offer what you would get at a dotcom."

One thing which she will bring naturally to the role, says Ravden, is her client-facing skills. Not only will she be consulting for some of the company's multi-market clients, which include BEA, she will also be involved in maintaining client satisfaction - even when her own people may have to bite the bullet.

"If a client comes to us and says 'I'd like Text 100 to work with us around the world', we will often say 'You may wish to look at other agencies' in certain markets, and if that company already has a good local relationship, we would recommend that they keep that, because the success for our people relies upon a strong relationship with the client. If that local PR person is told by the US 'You will work with Text 100', the relationship is never going to work," she says.

Asia
Hynes has spent January on the road, touring Asia for the first time over Chinese New Year.

The company made a hasty attempt to build a network serving clients in Greater China over the past two years, and while Korea is the next Asian market in its scopes, she has not come here to plan a new venture. "The last two years have been about investing in this market. Now it's about improving the quality of the work."

With offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Australia, the region accounted for US$3.92 million of revenue last year.

Although the company has sister brands under the OneMonday Group, such as Bite Communications, Joe Public Relations and August.One, which are expected to launch in Asia soon, the flagship brand has yet to establish itself as the powerhouse of the US and London in Asia.

Competing in local markets for regional and global accounts is the next step for the Asian operation.

The addition of Hynes to the CEO role will play an important part in the company's development here, says Ravden.

"During her three years in the US, she has been building relationships with potential major clients.

"I'm hoping that we will be able to leverage that influence globally."

< back