In memoriam

As we mentioned in The Ticker, Ofield Dukes died on Wednesday at the age of 79. Dukes worked with the LBJ administration and went on to open his own PR firm Ofield Dukes & Associates in 1969. His clients included Motown Records, CBS Records, and AT&T. He also consulted every Democratic presidential candidate since 1969, served as an adjunct professor at Howard and American Universities, was a journalist in his hometown of Detroit, and organized the first dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1972. Dukes’ sister says he succumbed to a form of bone cancer. [via Washington Post]

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Jason Chupick. Photo: Steve Bartel

A congratulations to one of our own: PRNewser contributor Jason Chupick has been named VP of PR for Harper’s Magazine. In this role, he’ll be heading up traditional consumer and trade PR and work closely with web editor Jeremy Keehn on community development and management. Chupick reports to John R. MacArthur, the magazine’s publisher and president. Great news!

Karen van Bergen has joined Porter Novelli as senior partner and MD of the New York office, effective January 1. She previously served as the leader of OneVoice, an Omnicom offering from Fleishman-Hillard and Ketchum. To assume this role, van Bergen will be relocating from Amsterdam. She is replacing assistant MD Joe Russo who has been filling the role on an interim basis.

Michael Bush has left MSLGroup for Edelman. He joined MSLGroup in February, serving as VP and comms director for the firm. Prior to that he was a reporter for Ad Age and PRWeek. At Edelman, he’s VP of media relations.

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Photo: AFP, Jim Watson

Apple launched a web page today, Remembering Steve, featuring some of the many messages of condolence over the death of Steve Jobs. You can still share your thoughts at rememberingsteve@apple.com.

The launch was coupled with a 90-minute closure at 1p.m. ET of Apple stores around the country for a memorial service held at the company’s Cupertino, CA HQ.

Apple continues on a successful path, announcing that four million iPhone 4S devices were sold in the first three days and releasing impressive earnings (though they were below expectations).

Not long after a Hong Kong student, Jonathan Mak, popularized a tribute logo to Steve Jobs, an Apple appreciator in Chicago took his devotion to the next level by setting up Steve Jobs street banners outside the Apple store in honor of his passing.

Eric Brightfield, principal of ImageFiction in Chicago, created the design, printed it on heavy-duty canvas and he and his team installed the banners “under cover of night,” he said in an email.

The banners were still up today, and Brightfield said the Apple employees were under the impression that the city of Chicago presented the tribute.

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Nicole Sabatini has been named the SVP of marketing for the Style Network. Sabatini served as the VP of ad sales and marketing for Bravo Media since 2007. In her new role, she will oversee consumer marketing, brand partnerships, new media, and other marketing areas.

Hernan Daguerre, the director of external comms at T-Mobile, has died in a car crash at the age of 38, PRWeek reports. Daguerre had been with the company for a year, working previously with companies including Nike and MTV.

Lena Hoareau has been put in charge of the new Seychelles Tourism Board London office. The PR office will also serve as a news bureau for media in Europe and in untapped markets. Hoareau is also responsible for the European PR office and has served in the lead position previously for the news bureau. [via Breaking Travel News]

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AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Calling it “one of the largest outpourings the network has ever seen,” AllTwitter reports that just after 8pm ET last night, just under 16 percent of all tweets included Steve Jobs’ name. Right now, #ThankYouSteve and Remembering Steve Jobs are among the top trending topics on Twitter still.

Over on AllFacebook, a post notes the tributes to Jobs posted as updates (and the malware that’s circulating, posing as a Jobs tribute).

On The New York Times site, David Carr’s Media Decoder column notes, “Mr. Jobs never bought into things like reputational damage or fatal mistakes” and discusses “how he changed business journalism — its image and its attractiveness.”

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Howard Bragman

Howard Bragman, founder and chairman of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations and what is now PMK/BNC, has joined Reputation.com as vice chairman. Reputation.com was founded in 2006 and provides online reputation management services. Bragman will continue in his role at Fifteen Minutes.

Kimberly Youngstrom has joined MWW Group as VP of program strategy. She was previously a VP at Kaplow working with clients across consumer and B2B industries. This is the latest in a string of new hires at MWW, which once again became independent in January.

Former ABC News producer Carla De Landri has joined Goodman Media as senior counsel. She’ll be working with the firm on traditional and digital work and providing expertise on video and Web content. While at ABC News, she worked with 20/20, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, and Nightline.

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Ted Pincus, PR vet and Chicago Sun-Times columnist, has died at the age of 78. Pincus suffered from multiple myeloma, a cancer afflicting the plasma cells in the bone marrow.

Pincus was founder of the Financial Relations Board, which he sold for $40 million in 2000 to True North Communications. He went on to become a managing partner at StevensGouldPincus, the M&A consultancy for the PR and ad industries. He has also served as a consultant for Weber Shandwick and Ruder Finn, a vice chairman at SMG, and other firms.

A memorial service was held for him today. He is survived by his sister, five children (including his son Mark, founder of Zynga), and 12 grandchildren.

[via Chicago Sun-Times, PRWeek]

The creator of Doritos snack tortilla chips, Arch West, has died at the age of 97. And like his fellow snack creator before him, Fredric J. Baur, who invented the Pringles packaging, West’s creation will be incorporated into his final send off. His family plans to sprinkle Doritos on his final resting place.

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Groupon’s director of comms Bradford Williams has stepped down after only two months. According to Business Insider, there was some disagreement between Williams and CEO Andrew Mason over the way issues should be handled, one specific example being a “leaked” memo last week during the company’s pre-IPO quiet period. BI points out that Groupon has been taking some heat over business information revealed in the IPO paperwork.

One of Indianapolis’ major PR and advertising firms, Hetrick Communications, is closing at the end of September. Founded in 1994, president Bruce Hetrick said there simply wasn’t enough business to keep the doors open. Clients have included Indiana University and Atlas World Group. [via Indianapolis Business Journal]

Matt Sonefeldt has been named IR manager at LinkedIn, the first person to hold this in-house position at the newly-public company. He’ll report to CFO Steve Sordello. Sonefeldt is new to IR, but comes from Capital Research where he was a buy-side analyst. Marilyn Lattin, head of Investor Communications, an IR firm, handled investor relations during the company’s IPO. [via Inside Investor Relations]

Eric Villines has joined MWW Group as GM of the firm’s Seattle office and deputy head of the firm’s global tech practice. He’s been with the firm since 2006.

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