Accordience rebrands as Grayling Group as two CEOs depart
Accordience will become Grayling Group on November 2 as two agency CEOs leave. Clients will be watching how the reorganization works in practice.
Accordience is preparing to rename its global public relations group Grayling Group on November 2, as two senior Grayling executives depart and the parent organization moves toward a more regionally led structure. The plan was announced on October 16, 2026.
The proposed structure keeps the group's specialist agency brands but puts Grayling's public affairs and corporate communications capabilities at its centre. For communications clients, the central question is whether a simpler group identity also brings clearer accountability across markets and disciplines.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- What changes on November 2
- Two senior departures complicate the transition
- Integration is the test for clients
- What communications buyers should check
What changes on November 2
The Accordience parent company is scheduled to adopt the Grayling Group name on November 2, 2026. The group intends to organize its businesses across North America, the UK, Europe and the Middle East, and Asia, each led by a regional chief executive. Sarah Scholefield remains group CEO.
The change puts Grayling at the centre of the group's corporate affairs, public affairs, crisis and reputation offer. Three specialist brands remain distinct: Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR) for financial communications, Red Consultancy for brand, social and influencer work, and Cirkle for trade and B2B communications.
According to PRovoke Media's October 16 reporting, the business employs more than 650 people across 38 offices. That is the reported group footprint, not a forecast of what the rebrand will achieve.
Two senior departures complicate the transition
The announcement also involves the exits of Grayling global chief executive Richard Jukes and UK chief executive Heather Blundell. Jukes has worked at Grayling since 2010 and became global CEO in 2023. Blundell joined in 2023 and had assumed additional responsibility for Cirkle earlier this year.
Their successors had not been announced when the rebrand was made public. The unanswered question for clients is how existing account leadership, regional reporting lines and specialist responsibilities will connect while the new group structure takes shape.
Scholefield described the thinking behind the move in the group's announcement: “Putting Grayling and its strength in public and corporate affairs at the heart of the group creates a clear centre of gravity.” The emphasis is on giving clients a recognizable lead brand while maintaining access to specialist teams.
Integration is the test for clients
The rebrand follows a wider agency-market pattern of simplifying holding-company structures and asking separate capabilities to work together. ContentGrip recently covered Stagwell's plan to replace the Assembly name with Stagwell Media. The comparison is about organizational branding, not evidence that the two groups have identical strategies or scale.
For Grayling Group, the case for integration is concrete: a regulatory issue can require government relations, corporate reputation advice and specialist financial communication at the same time. A client should be able to receive one coordinated plan without losing the accountability or depth of each specialist team.
Yet a name change by itself says little about the operational model. The group has not published comparable measures of cross-agency client retention, faster decision-making or incremental revenue attributable to the new structure. The more useful performance test will come after November 2, when regional leads and account teams have to demonstrate how work is actually handed across disciplines.
What communications buyers should check
First, identify the accountable lead. A communications director working on a multinational corporate issue should ask which regional CEO and client lead own the response, especially when Grayling's corporate affairs team needs support from CDR or Red Consultancy.
Second, ask how specialists are engaged. For a project combining public affairs and consumer campaigns, the agency should explain whether teams share a planning brief and budget, and how conflicts over priorities are settled. A list of brands in the same group is not, on its own, an operating plan.
Third, review continuity during the leadership change. Existing Grayling clients should clarify their senior escalation contact and the timetable for appointing new global and UK leadership. This is practical transition diligence, not evidence that client accounts are being disrupted.
The November rebrand will therefore be most meaningful if it produces clearer ownership and reliable specialist collaboration. Clients can evaluate those outcomes through account-level reporting rather than the new name alone.
