The Academy has today reached agreement to merge with Shine Communications to form one of the UK’s biggest independent consumer PR agencies. Mitchell Kaye and Daniel Glover, who founded The Academy in March 2014, will take a majority stake in Shine Communications. Rachel Bell, who founded Shine in 1998, will revert to the role of Chairman and remain a shareholder. The Academy will become the name of the communications group, with Shine @ The Academy its consumer PR offering. Kaye and Glover plan to extend the group into other disciplines. Kaye, who will assume the role of CEO of Shine and The Academy group, had two previous spells at Shine before being backed by Bell to set up Mischief in January 2006. Glover will become creative director of Shine and The Academy group. Kaye and Glover built Mischief into an award-winning agency (PRWeek’s Agency of the Year in 2010) before selling the business to Engine Group in July 2011. The Academy, which also won two PRWeek campaign awards and the PRCA’s Best Small Agency in November, will move into Shine’s Hardwick Street offices with immediate effect. The newly merged agency will boast 40 staff and a client portfolio that includes the likes of QVC, Unicef, Sony, The Royal British Legion, Indesit Hotpoint and Lionsgate.

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