Ralph Kugler has joined the board of Gorkana as we ramp up our operations and consider opportunities in overseas markets and related sectors.

He spent more than 28 years with Unilever and has worked in six countries, including as regional president of Unilever’s business in both Europe and Latin America, and as chairman and CEO of Unilever’s Thai and Malaysian businesses.  He was also an executive director on the boards of Unilever Plc and Unilever NV from 2005 to 2008.

Ralph said: “I’m joining Gorkana at a very exciting time. It’s crucial that the company remains committed to its core market, but I am also very excited about some of the developing opportunities.”

Founder and chief executive Alex Northcott said: “We have managed to build a great client list over the past five years and we’re committed to delivering the value and support our clients have come to expect.  Ralph’s experience in nurturing some of the world’s most recognised brands will help keep us focussed on our clients’ needs.”

Ralph is also a non-executive director of Intercontinental Hotels Group and Byotrol Plc, as well as senior adviser to 3i.

In late April, Gorkana hosted its inaugural Media Briefing in New York City at the offices of The Financial Times. The event was designed to give Gorkana clients a better understanding of the paper’s world-famous and universally-respected Lex column. A capacity crowd was treated to an amazing presentation by Stuart Kirk, U.S. Lex Editor, and his colleagues Dan McCrumb and Spencer Jakab. The presentation outlined the general needs of those responsible for the Lex column globally as well as the particular interests of the U.S. Lex columnists, including everything from the best time to contact the team to an overview of the specific issues about which they would like to hear more. Feedback for the event was overwhelmingly positive, including multiple claims that this event was “the best media briefing I’ve ever attended.” We will be hosting similar events in the coming weeks and months.

If you are a journalists or PR professional interested in partnering with us to host an upcoming event, please contact Rebeca Denny on +1 (646) 442 3372 or rdenny@gorkana.com

Gorkana was delighted to attend the 2009 annual conference of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Held in Denver this year, the conference was attended by hundreds of business journalists from around the country and Gorkana was there to further strengthen our already deep understanding of the needs of these reporters. In addition to signing up more reporters to our Friday Gorkana Job Alert, we were able to gain invaluable additional information about a large number of attendees as well as the teams for which they work.

If you are a member or officer in a journalist organization and you believe the Gorkana Alerts would benefit the rest of your colleagues, please contact Rob Ingram on +1 (646) 442 3371 or ringram@gorkana.com

Our primary goal at Gorkana is to continually improve the conversation between journalists and PR professionals. To that end, Gorkana has introduced Twitterati, a daily feature of our daily Gorkana Alert that lists the Twitter account names of both journalists and publications. Following these feeds often provides PR professionals with a real-time insight into the stories journalists are working on and the still-open question they may have about an issue well before the story gets written. Not only do journalists benefit from broadening the conversation about the subject matter on which they are writing, but the promotion of their Twitter account to our extraordinarily large distribution lists also leads to an increased number of followers.

If you are a journalist who would like your Twitter account promoted in an upcoming Twitterati, please send your information to twitterUS@gorkana.com

As ex-PR professionals ourselves, we recognize that the freelance community is a vital and growing part of the industry who face a different set of challenges to in-house and agency PR people. As a sole proprietor, their time is precious; they may be juggling several client accounts on their own, as well as managing costs and potentially taking on clients that sit outside their normal area of expertise. As such, we are pleased to announce the launch of a new Gorkana database package specifically developed with the needs of freelance PR professionals in mind.

The Gorkana Freelance Package offers individual freelance PR professionals a cost-effective resource for their media planning that does not compromise on service quality. With a reduced rate and flexible subscription period, this new offering from Gorkana provides them with access to the most accurate media database for PR professionals on the market – the Gorkana database. They also receive our daily Gorkana alerts, keeping them up-to-date with the latest media news and journalist moves.

For more information, please contact Lucinda Howells on +1 (646) 442 3374 or e-mail lhowells@gorkana.com