Two employees acquire assets of Strategic Communications

SYRACUSE — Two employees of Strategic Communications, LLC have acquired the company’s assets as the firm’s owner begins stepping away from the business and into a consulting role.

One of the employees is using his acquisition to spin off a new firm in the company’s former office in Washington, D.C.

The acquisition closed on June 30, says Michael Meath, Strategic’s founder and former president.

Crystal Smith, the firm’s director of integrated media for public relations, and Frank Caliva III, the firm’s director of public affairs & strategy development in the Washington, D.C. office, acquired the majority of the assets.

None of the principals involved would provide details on terms of the deal including acquisition costs or financing.

The Business Journal News Network spoke with Meath and Smith at their Syracuse office, and Caliva joined the interview over the phone from Washington, D.C.

Smith acquired Strategic’s public relations, media monitoring, reporting, and media-response practice areas. She also bought the firm’s name, its brand, logo, and website, she says.

Smith is now president of Strategic Communication, LLC.

Smith joined Strategic Communications in 2009, and Caliva joined two years later. Meath saw both as “key” members of the organization, he says.

Meath says he told Smith and Caliva “a couple years ago” that he would be looking to “step out in a few years.”

“The three of us sat down and agreed that we would work together to see if it made sense to try to find a way to have the company continue in one way or another with them leading it,” he says.

Meath, Smith, and Caliva started discussing the firm’s future shortly after Caliva began working for the company in early 2011.

As Smith noted, the work that she handles and the duties Caliva performs involve “little overlap.”

“It made more sense … for each of the practice areas to succeed in the best way possible, for [the firm] to be two separate entities,” says Smith.

Strategic Communications will continue its operations in a 1,000-square-foot office in the General Exchange Building at 3532 James St. in Syracuse, says Smith.

Meath declined to disclose specific revenue figures for Strategic Communications, but noted the firm’s balance sheet is in “pristine” condition following 10 years of growth.

“There is no debt with the company,” says Meath.

Besides her role as president and sole owner, Smith is the firm’s lone full-time employee. Meath will serve as an independent contractor following the acquisition.

Deal advisers
In the transaction, Richard Engel, an attorney with Syracuse–based Mackenzie Hughes, LLP advised Meath; attorney Jeffrey Fetter with the Scolaro, Fetter, Grizanti, McGough & King, P.C. of Syracuse provided counsel for Smith; and Katie Centolella, an attorney with Syracuse–based Centolella Lynn D’Elia & Temes LLC advised Caliva.

In addition, the accounting firm Port & Co. CPAs of DeWitt advised Meath and Smith, while Mark Carroll, an accountant and partner in Evans and Bennett, LLP, provided accounting guidance for Caliva. 

P.R. Quinlan Associates
At the same time, Caliva acquired Strategic’s public affairs, government relations, and strategic-planning practice areas.

Caliva, who works from the company’s office in Washington, D.C., is using the assets to launch his own firm, P.R. Quinlan Associates, Inc., based on the practice areas that he acquired.

P.R. Quinlan will provide government relations, policy analysis, and advocacy services for Central New York organizations seeking support in Washington, D.C. and state capitals nationwide.

He wants the new firm to serve as “a resource and an advocate for the small and medium-sized businesses out there who really just don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to monitoring what’s happening in Washington and the state capitals.”

Caliva is the sole owner, president, and one of the new firm’s three employees, he says. 

Besides a customer list, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, Caliva also acquired a tool that Strategic Communications had developed.

“One of the biggest assets is a tool we developed over the past couple years called the Strategic Update, which is bi-weekly policy monitoring tool that’s customized for individual clients and provides them with very readable summation of legislation and regulation that impacts their industry,” says Caliva.

Caliva named the firm after his great great grandfather, Patrick Ryan Quinlan, who emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. in the 1840s. He was a greenhouse owner, operated a floral boutique, served on Syracuse Common Council and as a city treasurer, Caliva says. 

Fallingbrook Associates, LLC
Though moving away from day-to-day operations, Meath will remain involved in both firms as they continue their transition. He has also formed a new entity, 

Fallingbrook Associates, LLC, to continue work with clients nationwide during crises or other sensitive matters that pose potential threats to their reputation.

“It’s a meager attempt at retirement,” Meath quips.

Meath describes his firm as one that will serve as “of counsel,” but not in a legal sense. He wants to create a network of “senior level, old guys” who’ve served as lawyers, financial advisors, human resource professionals, or in operations to provide assistance in situations ranging from corporate turnarounds to a “true crisis.”

Meath, who will be Fallingbrook’s lone employee, will operate the LLC from his home in Fayetteville, he says. 

He’ll also continue teaching courses at Syracuse University in the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. 

Smith is a 2002 graduate of Christian Brothers Academy in DeWitt. She later earned a dual bachelor’s degree in business administration with concentrations in marketing and finance from the University at Albany in 2006.

She worked as a coordinator at Media Marketing in Albany in 2006 and later worked in the public-relations department at Latorra, Paul & McCann Advertising in Syracuse before joining Strategic Communications in 2009.

Smith earned her certification as an accredited public relations professional in 2012, she says.

Caliva is a 2000 graduate of Christian Brothers Academy and later earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Providence College in 2004. Caliva went on to earn a master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University in 2006.

Before joining Strategic Communications in 2011, Caliva worked for the U.S. Department of Commerce.       

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com