Rick believes that breakthrough results are created via the merger of education, experience and expertise.
His passion for education is what fuels his 30+ year commitment to creation and administration of his annual “PR Agency Best Practices/Benchmarking Survey” and the reports that follow.
Rick has exhibited this passion for learning in his own career. Starting his own CPA firm in his twenties, Rick went on to get his MS and law degrees.
Rick Gould’s achievements include:
- Representing over 300 PR firms as CPA, Merger & Acquisition facilitator & Financial/Management Consultant
- Creating, managing, and interpreting the “Financial Benchmarking/Best Practices” annual survey for 30 years
- Being featured in Bloomberg Business Week, Bulldog Reporter, PR News, O’Dwyer’s, Crains, PRWeek, AdWeek, HOW Magazine, and other creative services publications
- Authoring: “The Ultimate PR Agency Financial Management Handbook” Volumes 1-4; “The Comprehensive Guide to Public Relations Management”; over 100 articles on management issues
- Authoring the most comprehensive book written on PR M&A “Doing it The Right Way: 13 Crucial Steps For A Successful PR Agency Merger Or Acquisition”
- Reviewing and reporting the annual ranking of PR firms for the Council of PR firms for 5 years until it was discontinued as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley
- Providing expert witness testimony to support litigation valuation
- Served on the graduate faculty of Parsons School of Design for 4 years teaching the course he created, “Entrepreneuring: The Business of Creative Business”
- Holds an Executive Juris Doctor degree from the Concord University School of Law
- Ongoing participant in the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation