Breen is New CEO for Harte Hanks

Troubled direct marketing and targeting firm Harte Hanks has hired Bant Breen as Chief Executive Officer and promoted company veteran Andrew Harrison to President and COO, both effective immediately.

Harte Hanks has around 3,200 employees and its services include consulting, strategic assessment, analytics, mobile, print, direct mail and contact center. The firm received a notification of non-compliance from the New York Stock Exchange in August 2017 after its share price dropped below one dollar, and has been attempting to turn its fortunes around, shifting its business model to a more digital approach and rebuilding its management team. President and CEO Karen Puckett stepped down in August 2018 and since then the firm has been run by an interim 'Office of the CEO'.

The appointments of Breen (pictured) and Harrison are intended to combine continuity - 'maintaining the best qualities of Harte Hanks' heritage' - with a commitment to modernisation and transformation of the business. Breen, who has been a member of the Harte Hanks Board of Directors since June last year, recently founded executive digital identity platform Qnary, and previously held leadership roles in marcoms giants IPG, Publicis and WPP. At IPG he was Worldwide CEO of global search and social media agency Reprise, after launching social media strategy and activation unit Prophesee, and serving as the Executive Director of the IPG Emerging Media Lab. He holds an MA and a BA from the University of Cambridge and a BA from Duke University. Qnary co-founder Ray Carbonell will take over Breen's CEO role at the latter company, while Breen retains the Chairmanship.

Harrison has spent more than twenty years at Harte Hanks and was a member of the recent Office of the CEO team after serving as EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer. He comments: 'Harte Hanks has tremendous people who have a passion for delivering well-executed services, working every day to create success for our clients, a fantastic group of world-class companies. I'm excited to work closely with our teams and clients across all of our services as we continue our intense focus on business performance. Bant and I bring complementary skills and experience, and we will partner to bring the talent of the organization together to drive higher operational performance and reignite growth in all areas of our business'.

Chairman Alfred V. Tobia Jr. comments: 'We initiated an executive recruitment process three months ago evaluating internal and external leadership candidates. After meeting many highly-qualified candidates, the board felt that Bant emerged as the best candidate to lead Harte Hanks as CEO. Bant brings a wealth of experience in sales, advertising and marketing to top-tier corporations. This expertise will be invaluable as we continue to build Harte Hanks. Andrew has proven his ability over two decades at Harte Hanks, and as our President, he can partner with Bant to harness the company's tremendous talent base'.

Web site: www.hartehanks.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.