The press release announcing the leadership changes at Ketchum described the appointments as part of a transition for the company. But if you ask the firm’s top two execs, change is always and ongoing.

“Our business is all about change, so if you’re not changing you’re not moving a service firm of any kind forward,” the soon-to-be CEO Rob Flaherty told us on the phone today. “I think a good service firm develops a percentage of their services as new services every year.”

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Ketchum has announced leadership changes right at the top of the organization. As of July 1, Rob Flaherty, senior partner and president, will also become CEO of Ketchum. And Ray Kotcher, currently the CEO and senior partner, will be named chairman. The move is part of a planned leadership transition, with Flaherty continuing to report to Kotcher once they assume their new roles.

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The Holmes Report packed them in at Cipriani’s last night for the SABRE Awards dinner. PR firms came out in full force for the event where Ketchum and Weber Shandwick took the most awards for the night with eight. Weber shared the Platinum SABRE Award with Edelman and PepsiCo for Pepsi’s Refresh campaign, the company’s big social media CSR initiative. Among the awards Ketchum took home were for CSR with its client FedEX and for product media relations targeting trade media for client Navistar.

Other winners for the night were Glover Park Group in the public affairs category, MSLGroup for its work with Pepto-Bismol in the single special event category, and WPP with Ford Motor Company in the trade show category. A full list of Gold and Silver award winners is available here.

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Following Omnicom’s earnings announcement yesterday, we spoke with Ketchum CEO Ray Kotcher about Q4 2010 and the year to come.

Kotcher called Q4 “the strongest quarter of the year.” The quarter and year was a good one for organic growth, with the firm winning 65 percent of the opportunities it was presented with. Among the new clients are Sony Playstation and Johnson Controls, and the firm grew its business with Pfizer, Kotcher told us. On top of that, there were acquisitions in China and Russia.

Kotcher broke down a list for us of what to watch for 2011. Plus, after the jump, commentary from Fleishman-Hillard CEO Dave Senay.

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Following this morning’s news about Omnicom’s earnings and the Maslov acquisition, Ketchum CEO Ray Kotcher spoke optimistically about the future of the firm and the emerging BRIC markets.

“Any professional services firm needs to make a strategic choice,” Kotcher told PRNewser. “Are you going to be highly specialized in either a sector or industry? Are you going to be highly focused on a geography? Or are you going to create a professional service firm that services clients on a globally-integrated basis?”

He says the firm has chosen option three.

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United Airlines chose Edelman as the company’s first PR agency of record, finalizing a process that began in October 2009. PRNewser first reported on the company’s agency search.

Robin Urbanski, Media Relations Manager at United Airlines told PRNewser in late January, “We are in the last stages of review with some finalists.” The process took the airliner longer than expected.

One of the reasons for that could be because the company cast “an amazingly wide net,” as Ketchum CEO Ray Kotcher told PRNewser. We had heard more than 20 agencies were invited to pitch.

Edelman won a three year contract. Budget was not disclosed. United also did not disclose other agencies involved in the pitch, according to PRWeek.

Ketchum CEO Ray Kotcher sat at a table flanked by Council of PR Firms president Kathy Cripps and PRSA president and COO Bill Murray at last night’s PRWeek Awards in New York.

While Kotcher didn’t win the coveted PR professional of the year award – that went to Pfizer’s Ray Kerins – he had more than enough reason to celebrate, as Kethcum won four awards, including campaign of the year for their work with client Dreyer’s Ice Cream. In addition, subsidiary agency Emanate won the prestigious agency of the year award.

Who where the other big winners?

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Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) owned agency Ketchum and TBWA\RAAD\PR have announced a joint venture agreement covering Middle East operations.

The move isn’t entirely surprising, as TBWA\RAAD\PR has operated as the exclusive affiliate for Ketchum in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) since 2006. The firm has re-branded as Ketchum Raad Middle East, and will operate in 14 cities spanning 12 countries.

“On the one hand, clients are demanding that their agencies deliver efficient and effective service at local and regional levels, and on the other hand it must be integrated globally – across time zones, geographies, languages and cultures,” said Kethchum senior partner and CEO Ray Kotcher in a statement on why the move is important strategically for the agency.

PRNewser caught up with Ketchum CEO and Senior Partner Ray Kotcher and Fleishman-Hillard President and CEO Dave Senay [pictured left] today to get their perspective on earnings reported by their holding company, Omnicom.

Both were bullish on PR growth and prospects for 2010.

“We’ve outperformed the sector within Omnicom and the industry generally each of last two quarters of 2009,” said Senay. “We won just over $100 million in new business in 2009, with about a 60% win rate on new accounts over $250,000.”

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Here are some 2010 predictions from Ketchum executives, starting with agency senior partner and CEO Ray Kotcher:

On business prospects for 2010:

At Ketchum, given the current economic environment, we are being sensible about our 2010 forecasts and are planning for what may be a flat year compared to ’09. But we also have been seeing signs that 2010 could be a year of growth. Clients are “green lighting” 2010 work earlier and with firmer commitments than last year. Our new business activity in the final quarter of ’09 is the strongest it has been all year and our win rate has been outstanding.

On PR M&A activity in 2010:

There is clear evidence that more and more clients are consolidating their accounts with one or two shops that can offer them broad spectrum, integrated global service and greater efficiencies. As providers of public relations services, agencies have the choice to “buy or build” in order to meet client demand.

For example, Ketchum has pursued a “build” strategy with the hiring of Jonathan Kopp to lead Ketchum Digital and we continue to build out Zocalo, our word-of-mouth specialist agency. But in order to immediately expand the spectrum of client offerings of our technology practice here in the States and quickly seize market opportunities, we recently chose the acquisition route with Access Communications, a recognized leader in tech.

Click continued for thoughts from Ron Culp, partner at Ketchum and Director, North American Corporate Practice.

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