SAN FRANCISCO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--W2O Group today announced the appointment of Chris Deri as President of WCG, the Group’s largest company. Deri joins from Burson-Marsteller, where he served as Chief Executive and Market Leader for that firm’s operations across its five offices in Mainland China. Prior to that, Deri spent a decade at Edelman, where he incubated, led and grew the global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability practice to 110 practitioners in 15 offices around the world.

Deri, who is based in New York, will serve as a member of the W2O Group Executive Team, reporting to Bob Pearson, President, W2O Group.

“Ideas and insights are borderless,” said Pearson. “We have a unique opportunity to build a new style global agency that provides the counsel where and when clients need it. Chris brings the knowledge, experience, track record and network to help us achieve this vision more rapidly.”

Deri and the WCG leadership team will continue to strengthen the company’s core work in the healthcare, technology and consumer industries, while greatly enhancing what can be offered to the C-Suite for any industry from reputation to trust to social responsibility. Gary Grates, who leads W2O Group’s Corporate and Strategy team, will partner with Deri to accelerate its growth and value, and leverage the acquisition of Mettle Consulting in London earlier this year.

“After an extensive search to fill this game-changing role, we chose Chris because he is a leader who builds great teams, is highly collaborative and has a knack for running a business,” said Jim Weiss, Founder, Chairman and CEO of W2O Group. “We are poised to build a more comprehensive, powerful and far-reaching Corporate capability and practice to benefit our clients and fully realize our vision of being an integrated business consultancy with global reach.”

Deri’s global experience includes advising corporate, NGO and government clients worldwide, including General Electric, Huawei, Samsung, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Government of Abu Dhabi in the areas of reputation management, public affairs, location branding, litigation communications, CSR and sustainability.

“The entrepreneurial culture of WCG was a key attraction for me,” said Deri. “The analytics and digital edge we have here will enable our team to build out the next generation of products and services for our clients and provide them with unique advantage in the marketplace.”

Earlier in his career, Deri served as Regional Director of Business Outreach and Finance for Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign. Prior to that, he was Director of Institutional Affairs at the National Minority AIDS Council, a national training and lobbying organization.

About WCG

WCG is focused on integrated business solutions in the areas of innovation, change and growth for the world's leading companies and brands. WCG serves clients through a network of offices in San Francisco, New York, Austin, Los Angeles and London. For more than a decade, WCG's seasoned professionals have specialized in providing analytics, content, engagement and strategy to a diverse set of clients across the consumer, technology, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. For more information, please visit http://wcgworld.com.

About W2O Group

Founded and led by Chairman and CEO Jim Weiss, W2O Group is an independent network of complementary marketing, communications, research and development firms focused on integrated business solutions to drive change and growth through "pragmatic disruption" for the world's leading brands and organizations. W2O Group serves clients through a network of firms – WCG, Twist, Brewlife and W2O Ventures – through offices in San Francisco, New York, Austin, Los Angeles and London. For more information on W2O, please visit http://w2ogroup.com.

Chris Deri, President of WCG (Photo: Business Wire)