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Contacts:
Michael Herman, APR, Fellow PRSA
Mitch Javidi, Ph.D.
919.877.0877
mherman@catevo.com
mjavidi@catevo.com
For Immediate Release
Epley Associates, Digiton Merge to Form The Catevo Group
Sideways Creative Branding Integrated Into Firm
Raleigh, N.C. (April 5, 2006) – Epley Associates, Inc. and Digiton Corporation have merged the two companies creating The Catevo Group (www.catevo.com).
The Catevo Group has concurrently purchased Sideways Creative Branding, a creative, marketing, advertising and branding strategy firm.
Michael L. Herman, APR, Fellow PRSA, former chairman and CEO of Epley Associates, was named executive chairman, and Mitch Javidi, Ph.D., founder, former president and CEO of Digiton Corporation, was named president and CEO of The Catevo Group, effective immediately. Sideways Creative Branding was founded and owned by Aaron Mazze, who will become part of Catevo’s management team. With headquarters in Raleigh, Catevo will maintain offices in Charlotte, N.C., Washington, D.C., and London.
“Our new name is rooted in our brand promise – to serve as catalysts for the evolution of our clients’ business success worldwide,” Herman said. “By combining under one roof diverse functions such as marketing communications, public relations, branding, research, technology development and supply chain management, we believe The Catevo Group establishes a new benchmark for business consultancies. The depth and breadth of resources, experience and expertise we now offer are, in a word, remarkable.”
According to Javidi, the combination of Digiton’s marketing strategy, business intelligence and technology resources with Sideways’ interactive media and creative branding talent and Epley Associates’ nearly 40 years of leadership in public relations enables the new firm to help organizations at every step of the product value chain.
“If a company needs to identify markets most ripe for a product in development, our research and analytics team can help,” Javidi said. “If the goal is to cut time and cost of shipping raw materials or finished product, we provide supply chain management experts. If the need is to pinpoint the best value propositions so a product resonates with customers, our market intelligence and brand management team has demonstrated expertise in creating compelling, dynamic strategies and tools. And if a company’s communications simply aren’t connecting, our seasoned strategists can help strengthen relationships with customers, employees, investors, the media and other stakeholders.”
In addition to the more traditional research, branding, marketing and public relations consulting services, Catevo offers a comprehensive suite of proprietary e-learning products, a competitive intelligence portal, and global project and supply chain management software solutions. Javidi noted that Catevo is currently using one of its proprietary project management software tools to help pharmaceutical manufacturers streamline and rationalize their global supply chains and logistics networks worldwide.
“For nearly 40 years, Epley Associates has pioneered strategic communications consulting in the Carolinas and around the globe, and we’re proud of our record of industry leadership at home and abroad,” Herman said. “As the next logical step in the evolution of business consulting, The Catevo Group builds on that strong foundation, and our staff is committed to ensuring that The Catevo Group remains focused on the challenges and opportunities our clients face throughout the world.”
The Catevo Group’s clients comprise a broad range of industries and markets, including health care, finance, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, manufacturing, hospitality, commercial development, entertainment and telecommunications.
Organizations served by Catevo include the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (URAC), the American System of Health-System Pharmacists, AT&T, BB&T, Carolinas HealthCare System, Centex Homes, Cisco Systems, GE Healthcare, Greer, John Deere, Longistics, Misys Healthcare, The N.C. China Center, Novo Nordisk, Novozymes, Pfizer, Raytheon, Skanska USA Building, Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Whole Foods Market.
Herman likened the merger to a “homecoming,” noting that Digiton and Epley Associates have a long history of successful collaboration. “This merger is a union of powerful teams that have worked closely together for nearly 20 years,” he said, noting that he and Javidi began their working relationship in the mid 1980s. “Mitch headed Epley’s research division from 1993 to 1998 and then left to concentrate solely on building Digiton as a focused business and technology consultancy in the life sciences arena,” Herman said.
The Catevo Group will remain a founding partner of The WORLDCOM Public Relations Group (www.worldcomgroup.com), the largest international consortium of independent public relations consultancies. WORLDCOM has more than 100 members with offices throughout North America, Europe, Australia and the Pacific Rim.
In addition to Herman, Javidi and Mazze, Catevo’s management team includes Ray Hornak, APR; Gail Rosenberg, APR; Tiffany Ahlers; Dwight Hallman; Ben Baker; Joseph Gaitens, APR; and Roger Friedensen, APR. Additional executive team members will be announced shortly.
“Our mission as The Catevo Group boils down to this,” Herman said. “By combining diverse business disciplines with intelligence, imagination and innovation, we will truly serve as catalysts for our clients’ business evolution.”
Visit www.catevo.com for more information.
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Michael L. Herman, APR, Fellow PRSA
Executive Chairman
THE CATEVO GROUP
Beginning his career in the entertainment industry at age 11, Michael Herman worked as a singer, songwriter and musician for approximately 22 years, working in Oklahoma City, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville and New York City. His career in entertainment blended with public relations beginning in 1970.
A former editor of Product Safety News and the Journal of Products Liability for the Institute for Product Safety, Mr. Herman held various management positions for the Insurance Information Institute and was assistant director for The National Driving Center, a medical research facility associated with Duke University. He has also served as an executive consultant in communication, public affairs and change and crisis management to The Independent Insurance Agents of America, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Bayer Biologicals, Dominion Resources, PRAXAIR Corporation, Rhone-Poulenc, Nortel, Bell Atlantic Communications, ABB Corporation, John Deere, Novozymes, Longistics, The N.C. China Center, Novo Nordisk, and Austin Nichols Distilleries.
He established the Raleigh office of Epley Associates/Public Relations in 1975. In 1978 he joined Union Carbide Corp. in New York City, where for eight years he held various management positions in internal and external communications. He was an integral member of Union Carbide's communication crisis management team during the Bhopal industrial accident in 1984-85.
In 1986 he founded The Herman Group, which became Communication Sciences International (CSI) in 1990. CSI emphasized a social science-based approach to communication research, public relations and integrated marketing and built a national and international clientele based on that philosophy. In September 1993, CSI became a division of Epley Associates, and Mr. Herman was named president of the combined operations. In 1999 Mr. Herman also assumed the responsibilities of chief operating officer. In February of 2005 he was named chairman and chief executive officer. In March of 2006, Epley Associates was merged with Digiton Corporation and Sideways Creative Branding to create The Catevo Group Mr. Herman was named executive chairman. He provides Catevo’s clients with senior consultation services in crisis management, strategic planning, organizational communication, change management and public relations/public affairs.
Mr. Herman is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and is a member of the Public Relations Society of America’s prestigious College of Fellows. He has served on the PRSA National Nominating Committee and Professional Development Committee. He served as the 2004 Chair of the Executive Committee of PRSA’s prestigious Counselor’s Academy, and Co-Chair of the PRSA APR Marketing Task Force. He has been active in the Society of Professional Journalists and in the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), where he served on IPRA's Governing Council and as the organization's Liaison Member to the United Nations Headquarters on consultative status to the Economic and Social Council and the Office of Public Information. As a speaker, he has represented the United States at an international conference on crisis management sponsored by the Russian Public Relations Association in Moscow, and served as a keynote speaker in Puerto Rico at the Fifth Annual Confederation Interamericana de Relaciones Publicas (CONFIARP) Forum for public relations practitioners from South America.
Author of more than 33 published articles, papers and presentations in communication, public relations and management, he served as a member of the faculty in public relations at N.C. State University’s School of Communication from 1986 to 2000. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at N.C. State University and as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Triangle Radio Reading Service serving blind and sight-restricted residents in the Triangle. He holds a B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in public relations from the University of Oklahoma as well as post-graduate certificates from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and The Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.
Mitch Javidi, Ph.D.
President and CEO
THE CATEVO GROUP
In addition to being an adjunct professor of BioPharma MBA and a member of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers & Scholars at North Carolina State University, Dr. Javidi is the CEO and president of The Catevo Group.
As an internationally recognized strategist and researcher, Dr. Javidi is an expert in the areas of strategic positioning and competitive intelligence. He has extensive experience designing and executing market research and strategy programs to help organizations address a variety of key issues including brand management, market intelligence, market positioning and business performance.
Dr. Javidi has received prominent acclaim for his strategic endeavors. In 1998 the National Society of Accountants named him Person of the Year in recognition of his competitive intelligence and strategic counsel as part of the association's organizational redesign initiatives. Senator Roth received the award the following year. In 1999 the United States Department of Defense Special Operations Command inducted Dr. Javidi as an honorary member to recognize his strategy and intelligence contributions to the unit's ongoing development and training.
Dr. Javidi is a frequent international speaker on competitive intelligence and market viability and positioning and has authored many papers in the field. He currently serves on various private corporate boards. Some of Dr. Javidi’s past and present clients include: AT&T, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, TEAMM Pharmaceuticals, Respirics, Ford Motors, Nortel Networks, Plasma Energy, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Waveguide Solutions, United States Department of Defense, John Deere, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, American Accreditation HealthCare Commission, Misys Healthcare and Micell Technologies.
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