463 West: Big Moves

We don't talk much about ourselves, but we have news that begs for an exception....

In 463's three years, we've accomplished a lot. First-class clients, a smart, experienced team and a penchant for irreverent videos have all been hallmarks.

However, we started with one representative in the Bay Area (me), and until last week, I was still manning the helm solo.

463 West has doubled in size thanks to the addition of 463's fourth partner, Hani Durzy. Obviously, adding a fourth partner is a huge deal to 463's founding partners -- me, Jim Hock and Tom Galvin. But, once we got past Hani's obnoxious Red Sox Nation-isms, we knew that he would be the perfect compliment to our team and a great asset as we grow in the Bay Area.

And, we do plan to grow in the Bay Area. We're close to securing an office in Palo Alto (knock on wood) and making additional notable hires.

Hani was most recently the director of corporate communications at eBay and was their chief spokesperson for the last five years. His bio is after the jump...

Hani Durzy
Partner, 463 Communications

Hani joins 463 as a partner, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He brings more than 17 years of communications experience to 463, the last 12 of which have tracked the adoption, growth and mainstreaming of the Internet and its underlying technologies. Hani's experience covers the areas of corporate reputation management, media relations, message development, media training, executive thought leadership, crisis communications, financial communications and public affairs.

Hani comes to 463 after nearly five years at eBay Inc., where he served as Director of Corporate Communications. In this role, Hani was primarily responsible for the reputation of the company within the media and blogger communities. He acted as the lead external spokesperson on all issues related to eBay Inc. and most of the business units, often handling more than 40 media interviews a day. He also was responsible for proactive media outreach strategies and programs for eBay Inc., including the ongoing relationships with the business media covering the company. Hani regularly acted as the "communications voice" in internal discussions about business, product, and policy implementations, ensuring that the company's decisions could be effectively and credibly communicated to external audiences.

Hani's role at eBay required a deep understanding of e-commerce industry and all of its aspects. He devised and executed communications campaigns that delivered eBay Inc.'s messages on a wide variety of topics, including the company's financial and business performance, policy and user experience changes that impacted the health and usage of the eBay marketplace, the future of e-commerce and online payments, the role of eBay in pop culture, the meaning of privacy in a socially networked world, and the company's position on numerous legislative and regulatory policy issues. As one of the best-known companies of the Internet era, eBay was often at the center of controversy; Hani was instrumental in driving the strategy and execution of crisis communications plans designed to respond swiftly and transparently to these issues.

Prior to eBay, Hani was a Vice President in the technology practice at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. While there, he oversaw the management of programs for large and start-up technology clients. Prior to Ogilvy, Hani was Director of Corporate Communications for Chipshot.com, and held management positions at Alexander Communications, where he worked on large clients such as HP and helped launch numerous companies, including CitySearch.

Hani has a B.A. in Political Science from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He lives in San Jose with his wife Cheryl and their two children.

Comments

[Josh Morgan]

I think your "Alexander quota" is now full.

[Cheryl Durzy]

You are lucky the Pats lost...otherwise it would have been all New England sports, all the time.

Us Alexander-ites tend to stick together....

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