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SEC Newgate Global Team
SEC Newgate, the global strategic communications, advocacy and research group, has signed a deal to acquire 100% of Wepublic, one of the largest consulting firms in communication and public affairs in the Netherlands. Wepublic has offices in Amsterdam and The Hague with nearly 40 experienced professional advisors and revenues at about €5 million.
As a result of this deal with SEC Newgate, Wepublic will further realise its ambitions to grow and continue to lead with its unique data-driven approach, while SEC Newgate will strengthen its position in one of Europe’s key markets and increases its competency in public affairs.
The current owners, Maaike van Hooidonk and Mark van den Anker, will remain with Wepublic and will join the company’s Board of Directors of Wepublic. “We have chosen SEC Newgate because they can best assist us in achieving our ambitious goals as we invest further in our specialist solutions for strategic issues management and proprietary intelligence tools,” Maaike van Hooidonk said.
“We will continue providing a top-quality service to our clients and to keep innovating. As part of the SEC Newgate group, we will be even more closely aligned with all societal and political developments regionally and internationally, enabling us to provide better outcomes for our clients,” Mark van den Anker added.
The day-to-day management of Wepublic will remain in the hands of Managing Director Maurice Jansen and Director of Intelligence Gijs Petter. “Maurice and Gijs have made significant steps in professionalising the organisation and fostering growth in recent years. We have every confidence that they will continue this with great enthusiasm,” said Maaike van Hooidonk.
“We would like to welcome our new colleagues from Wepublic, who we look forward to working closely with in the coming months and years,” said SEC Newgate’s CEO Fiorenzo Tagliabue.
“SEC Newgate consistently looks at opportunities in the market to grow its global footprint, and Wepublic’s strong know-how in Public Affairs and communications in the Netherlands and the wider region offers interesting synergies. We share the same interests for the development of digital based tools applied to stakeholders management and advocacy and thanks to this new partnership we can improve our tool offering worldwide,” Fiorenzo Tagliabue added.
SEC Newgate is the 21st-ranked communications group in the world and is the fastest-growing of the top 30 (PRovoke 2023 Top 250 rankings). Since those rankings were calculated, SEC Newgate has significantly grown its presence in South and Central America through the purchase of a majority stake in ‘another‘, a Mexico City-based group of over 225 employees.
