SmithBucklin and MCI Establish Global Partnership
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 3/20/2006
Association and event management firms SmithBucklin and MCI last month formed a global partnership that should help Smith Bucklin's clients do business overseas and MCI's European clientele do the same in the United States.
The SmithBucklin + MCI Global Partnership is expected to provide clients access to an enhanced pool of resources around the world.
Roger Tondeur, president of the Geneva-based MCI, said the partnership "takes the longstanding working relationship we have had with SmithBucklin to a whole new level."
The companies' combined expertise, resources and technologies, added Henry S. Givray, chairman and CEO of the Chicago-based SmithBucklin, should help drive growth of their clients as well as the companies themselves.
The partnership will be governed by an executive council with members from both companies. In addition, Givray and Tondeur will serve on each other's boards.
Founded in 1949, SmithBucklin employs 630 people and manages more than $200 million in annual client budgets. The firm has offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., St. Louis and Durham, N.C.
MCI, with 350 employees, has offices in Geneva; Brussels, Belgium; London; Zurich, Switzerland; Paris and Lyon, France; Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany; Barcelona and Madrid, Spain; and Singapore.
