2022 has drawn to a close, and it’s hard to believe everything we’ve done as a team over the last 12 months.
It’s time to reflect on the successes and challenges of the past year, and to take stock of what you can do with expertise, inspiration, and a great team.
It’s been a year of hard work and exciting accomplishments, a year where we continued to put our clients first, and made sure they got their stories heard by those who need to hear them.
Here are some highlights from what happened at PR Associates in 2022, and what our team of talented, dedicated, and passionate professionals accomplished in our pursuit of excellence.
The PRA Team Keeps Growing
Our team continued to grow in 2022, to become the merry gang we are celebrated the holidays with.
Carla Bosacki joined us as an Account Director in July. We were lucky to welcome Carla to the team, given her many years of experience as a broadcaster working in Halifax, Calgary, and Toronto, engaging viewers from coast to coast. Carla comes to us with 15 years’ experience with Global Television.
Carla is a marathon runner, avid traveler, and adventure seeker, and she quickly made an indelible mark on us here at PR Associates.
We also welcome Priya Malik to PR Associates as a new Account Executive with us.
Priya moved to Toronto from her hometown of New Delhi, India, in order to continue her studies in public relations.
While balancing this major life move as well as her ongoing post-secondary success, Priya brings to PRA her many gifts as a talented storyteller.
She dove right into getting to know the many complexities of the industries and clients that we serve, and has proven to be an invaluable team player.
Celebrating Success & Growth
We’re proud to be a workplace that people not only want to join, but one where people want to stay.
This makes us better able to serve our clients, thanks to the years of in-house experience that our team members accumulate, and supports the kind of culture we want to have as a leading Canadian public relations firm.
With that in mind, we were excited to celebrate Kamran Shaikh as he marked his fifth year with us on Dec. 1st.
Our president Robert Simpson, who knows Kamran’s tastes well by now, was sure to celebrate him with a gift of ‘the good stuff’: a bottle of 15-year-old Dalmore single malt.
Happy five-year anniversary, Kamran! Thank you for everything you do, and all the value you bring as a leader on our team.
Speaking of leadership, let us tell you about Swati.
Swati Mehrotra has been a mainstay on the PRA team for nearly two years. In the spring, she earned a promotion to the position of Account Director.
Since taking on that role, she has been leading a diverse portfolio of accounts with an emphasis on strategic public relations and communication.
Last, but very far from least, is Celine Barton, who has been an outstanding team member since she joined us nearly two years ago.
Celine has skills in storytelling and creativity that make her an exceptional communicator, and a core member of our team.
After originally joining PRA as a graphic designer and social media marketer, Celine’s talents and drive made it clear she was ready to take on even more.
In the spring, Celine earned a promotion to the role of Account Executive, and has been serving our clients well ever since.
PRA in the Media
Throughout the course of 2022, our team at PRA worked, as we always do, on both sides of the media spotlight.
Behind the scenes, we helped clients craft their story with clarity and focus. Occasionally, as well, we were the ones whose names were making the news.
Fans of Forbes Magazine may have spotted our president, Robert Simpson, sharing his views on the state of the industry and the direction that the public relations space is heading in.
Robert is a member of the Forbes Agency Council, an invitation-only group of leaders in the PR, media, and advertising industries, who are selected to share their views and insights through the Forbes platform.
As a thought leader in the space, Robert shared his views on the looming PR risk that’s facing businesses who depend on the critical minerals supply chain, as those minerals get harder to find in the context of the green transition and the massive growing need it is creating.
In addition to that op-ed of his, Robert’s expertise and experience were recognized in articles asking members of the Forbes Agency Council for their advice, such as their tips for excellent client communication, and their most important career lessons.
Our Clients Getting Noticed
Of course, our team members weren’t the only ones enjoying success in the media spotlight.
First and foremost, we were thrilled to see the impact our clients made this year, with their stories getting the media attention they deserve.
SHARC Energy — a PRA client specializing in clean energy technology — saw their success profiled by Fast Company, one of the world’s leading business media brands. The U.S. magazine is a distinctly top-tier media outlet, with upwards of 11 million website visits every month.
SHARC Energy was profiled for the groundbreaking work they are undertaking in New York City, pairing their wastewater heat recovery technology with geothermal, to bring the carbon footprint of two apartment buildings in an affordable housing co-op down to zero.
SHARC Energy also enjoyed earned media from The Globe and Mail and CNN Business.
We were proud to see our client Seabridge Gold recognized a project of theirs that saw them put their values into action.
Seabridge won the 2022 Jake McDonald Annual Mine Reclamation Award for their work at the Johnny Mountain mine site in northwestern B.C.
They have been working hard there since 2016, in close collaboration with the Tahltan Nation, to bring the property they acquired back up to standards, and rehabilitate the local environment.
GlycoNet, meanwhile, enjoyed a great year, both in the milestones they achieved in their research, and the attention they received in the media.
GlycoNet chair Karimah Es Sabar penned this impeccable op-ed in The Hill Times, explaining why glycomics is the next great frontier in scientific research.
They were featured as well by Global News, with a television segment highlighting how glycomics research plays an important role in drug discovery.
In the FinTech space, our client Hero Innovation Group has been developing innovative tools to help parents manage the spending of the young people in their family, while providing tools and resources to teach them financial literacy.
Hero Financials’ app and the SideKick Mastercard are packed with features to promote financial empowerment — creating a compelling story that got picked up this year by outlets including CTV News and BNN Bloomberg.
While many clients enjoyed the kind of high-quality, earned-media coverage that we are proud to deliver, one more in particular deserves a special mention.
Chip Wilson, famous as the founder of Lululemon, this year launched an initiative at the intersection of life sciences innovation and important health-care research.
Solve FSHD is the name of the initiative, which received front-page coverage from the Vancouver Sun.
Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a type of muscular dystrophy with progressive muscle degeneration and muscle weakness that can be debilitating. Solve FSHD funds scientists and specialists with the goal of finding a treatment for FSHD by 2027.
Thank You for 2022
Thanks to our team and our clients for making this year possible. Here’s to many more successes in the future. We look forward to sharing our clients’ stories, engaging audiences, shifting mindsets, and much more in 2023.
