- Mary Ellen Makhlouf Rebrands Marketing Firm
By Andrew Macdonald
A PR and communications strategy agency helmed by Mary Ellen Makhlouf and her husband, Elio Makhlouf, has rebranded this past week, after it was founded on the North Shore five years ago.
And, the firm has a few heavy hitters on staff, including former journalist and HRM regional councillor, Lisa Blackburn.
On the firm’s staff roster is Mark Boudreau, listed as project manager.
The firms have been known as Forward Strategies and Forward Creative for the last five years, and this week rebranded as Forward, billing itself as a “multi-disciplinary” agency firm. Public relations and communications is one of its business offerings.
The company has created business among the many local municipal governments in the Atlantic, and especially in NS.
To understand Forward, I spoke to co-founder and CEO Mary Ellen Makhlouf for this story.
“We originally started as a creative agency. We worked mostly up on the Northshore, and we have expanded in the last year to be a multi-disciplinary, branching into strategy and technology and have expanded our service offerings. That is why we decided to rebrand and really put our foot forward as the multi-disciplinary (marketing) firm we have become.”
Makhlouf is now based in Bedford, and her staff work from home offices, as she does, as well.
The firm is in the PR, marketing, website creation and branding spheres, and helps organizations become more technology advanced, and develop strategies.
As an example, a municipality might want to improve its communication with its citizens. “So, we would work with them to develop a communication strategy.”
A non-profit might hire Forward to go through an organizational transformation. “We would help them go through that process and strategically plan for it,” says Makhlouf.
She is doing the rebrand to Forward, “to better communicate and indicate we are all under one roof. Organizations can come to us and we can tackle their challenges from A to Z, and we are all in one, and we work together collaboratively within the team across the different areas of expertise to work through those challenges or strategically (on behalf of a client).”
There are 17 full-time staffers, some are living in Pictou County, some in Cumberland County, a few living on the South Shore, and some in Halifax. “We are a fully remote firm.
Some heavy-hitter staffers include Wade Tibbo, the former CEO of the Pictou County Partnership. At Forward, he is project director for strategy. He did business development work previously in Kentville.
Mark Boudreau is project advisor for the firm. He came second for the Conservatives in the riding of Halifax in last spring’s election. He is on the staff roster part-time and is also looking for full-time employment elsewhere.
“He brings a ton of communications experience, some good government relations experience….He will help us with comms training as well, so if we need support to train a client, Mark is a go-to for us. And, generally, he is an advisor on a project-by-project basis.”
Former journalist and HRM regional councillor Lisa Blackburn also works at Forward. She is a senior project manager.
“Lisa brings that lens of governance to the table. What she really brings is that councillor perspective. So when we are doing engagement with councillors, she really brings a strong lens to help councillors come around on different projects we are working on. But she also has a strong comms background. She was with CBC for a long time. She is a great communicator, and we are planning to launch a podcast, and she will be our host.”
The podcast will tackle thought leadership around Atlantic Canada’s growth, what is stopping that growth, and what is accelerating that growth. “It is still a work in progress.”
The company just finished a communications strategy for the County of Antigonish and is working on a net-zero brand for the Town of Antigonish.
