Jeffrey Sharlach, responsible for founding the Latin American agency JeffreyGroup 30 years ago, he announced that he would retire at the end of March. During his more than 47-year career in public relations, he held leadership roles at Carl Byoir & Associates (now part of Hill & Knowlton), Burson-Marsteller (now BCW) and Saatchi & Saatchi in New York City, before launching JeffreyGroup in Miami in 1993.
At the time, most Miami agencies focused on local tourism and real estate, but Sharlach worked exclusively on international programs at Saatchi & Saatchi and noticed that many multinational companies looked to South Florida as a regional base for their entire business. Latin America. When Saatchi management decided not to follow through on his proposal to open a regionally focused operation out of Miami, Sharlach quit his job and moved to Florida to launch his own consultancy.
Today, JeffreyGroup is a leading agency in the region, with hundreds of employees across six offices serving major global brands, including Airbus, Amazon, American Airlines, Bayer, Disney, Marriott, Mastercard and Salesforce.
It was the typical story of being in the right place at the right time. I’m not sure if I was brave or crazy at the time to think I could start a business in Latin America without speaking Spanish or Portuguese, says Sharlach.
In a short time, JeffreyGroup has become a company known for its award-winning programs and ability to serve multiple markets from Miami with a strategic regional approach. The agency opened its first office outside the USA in Buenos Aires (1996), followed by Mexico City (1997) and São Paulo (1998).
From the beginning, it was clear to me that if we wanted to compete with the big agencies, we needed to differentiate ourselves in the way we worked, not in the services themselves. For JeffreyGroup, this meant focusing on customer service, being proactive and committed to delivering significant results, with senior professionals who always remain close to customers”, highlights Sharlach.
The key principles are codified in The JeffreyGroup Way, customer service guidelines that are continually reinforced to all employees. Sharlach, who serves as chairman of JeffreyGroup, stepped down as CEO in 2015, handing over leadership of the agency to Brian Burlingame.
The huge advances in technology since I started my first agency job in 1997 have made today an exciting time to be in the communications business. And especially to observe the evolution of JeffreyGroup over the last three decades, Sharlach highlighted.
Now, there is greater demand for strategic planning and stakeholder engagement, especially in areas of social impact and government relations, as well as support for creative marketing communications.
In 2022, JeffreyGroup was acquired by WPP and became part of the Hill & Knowlton (H&K) group. At that time, Burlingame became CEO of H&K in Latin America, while also maintaining his role as regional CEO at JeffreyGroup.
This year feels like the perfect time to retire from JeffreyGroup. We have successfully transitioned from a private company to proudly becoming part of WPP and H&K, offering our clients access to a growing range of world-class capabilities, especially in data intelligence, and providing exciting career paths for our team, as well as additional services, said Sharlach.
Sharlach returned to New York City in 2006 when JeffreyGroup opened an office there. He has taught in the MBA program at NYU’s Stern School of Business since 2007 and will remain on the faculty of the institution’s Department of Communications, in addition to dedicating time to various charitable activities in New York.
Follow Adnews on Instagrame LinkedIn. #WhereTransformationHappens
