Sachs Media, the 26-year-old powerhouse Florida communications firm, today announced its plan for a prepared succession of ownership and operation of the firm to five senior partners in a multi-year process that is already underway.
Founder/CEO Ron Sachs and President/Senior Partner Michelle Ubben will entrust five longtime partners – Lisa Garcia, Herbie Thiele, Ryan Cohn, Drew Piers, and Karen Cyphers – with the company’s next era of ownership and operation. All of them have been with the firm for about 10 years or longer.
“This succession plan benefits from the fact that these five partners have been key leaders at the firm for many years – and they are respected and trusted by the entire staff and the firm’s healthy roster of clients,” Sachs said. “They seamlessly take us into the future and show the staff that there is a path forward for them, too, in a firm that is positioned to succeed and grow to new heights.”
This month marks 26 years since Sachs left his role as former Governor Lawton Chiles’ Communications Director to open the doors of what at first was called “Ron Sachs Communications.” His startup capital: some family savings and a wealth of political knowledge and statewide relationships.
In the quarter century-plus since, Sachs Media has grown into a dominant, respected, and influential statewide and national public relations force, with about 40 full-time employees, a 7,000-square-foot downtown headquarters in the shadow of the Capitol, and a deserved reputation for being among the very best independent communications companies in the country.
Ubben has been Sachs’ longtime business partner, helping to lead and grow the company for the past 24 years. Besides receiving local, state, and national recognition as a communications professional and in the business world, she has helped the company repeatedly achieve top honors, including being named a “Best Places to Work” and having the best Florida PR campaign of the year three times in a decade.
The leadership duo invested in talent as they grew the business to be a full-service communications firm with research, crisis management, digital media, advertising, web development, graphic design, and Emmy Award-winning video production services.
Among the firm’s top industry honors, Sachs Media was named one of America’s Best PR Agencies in 2021 and made PRNews’ list of the top-100 PR agencies nationally in 2020. The firm is often the choice of Florida government agencies with high-stakes challenges, including impactful work connecting children with health insurance, helping Floridians access hurricane relief, making sure veterans get deserved and earned benefits and services, increasing child abuse reporting, and finding homes for children in foster care.
Sachs and Ubben will continue to serve in key leadership roles in the company, as the other partners ascend to collaboratively direct the business.
