Berkeley PR opens office in New York

Berkeley PR has announced the opening of an office in New York in order to bolster its overseas service capabilities.

The new premises on Third Avenue will be established by Jennifer Handshew, the agency's North American director, who will be tasked with overseeing client relationships, providing strategic counsel and driving social media, reports PRWeek.

Previously, Berkeley PR relied on a network of 14 licensed partners to establish a global presence across 26 countries. With a dedicated New York office, it will be able to offer existing clients PR services in their home territory and also pitch for local accounts.

This new arrangement will not affect the firm's collaborative relationship with San Francisco-based Vantage Communications.

Chris Hewitt, chief executive of Berkeley PR, said: "This is an exciting development for us and is already generating a lot of interest among our UK clients, who may not command the resources to execute PR strategies in the US, but believe in our storytelling approach."

This continues what has been a successful 2015 for the agency so far, following contract wins with Bitnet, Iris Software and Epicor earlier in the year.