• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, January 6, 2012

There are changes afoot within the top PR ranks at two agency holding companies.

Pat Sloan, the longtime senior vice president and corporate director of public affairs, DDB Worldwide, and parent company Omnicom Group Inc., left at the end of the year to form a new independent PR shop, based in the New York area.

Alexandra Delanghe, who worked for Sloan at DDB as U.S. director of communications, has left to take the top PR job at MDC Partners. She replaces Katie Kempner, who has returned to MDC shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky as vice president executive director global communications. Delanghe will be based at MDC’s New York corporate office.

Sloan confirmed that she is forming Sloan Hunt Communications and Reputation Management.

Prior to her corporate communications career, Sloan was a journalist, including a stint with Advertising Age, but often did freelance work. “I see this as a return to my entrepreneurial roots,” she wrote in an email. She said that she expects to finalize arrangements for office space and a Web site within the next month. Talks are ongoing with several potential clients.

Sloan's global DDB duties are being assumed by Jeff Swystun, the agency's worldwide chief communications officer. Swystun said the agency expects to name a replacement for Delanghe within the next few weeks. Sources said Sloan's corporate Omnicom duties are being absorbed internally.

Delanghe joins MDC’s growing corporate team in New York, which is expanding as the holding company has grown from about 30 agencies and marketing firms to about 50 shops in the last two years. Her new title is vice president corporate communications. In the last six months, MDC has added David Dabill, COO, Brett Colbert, Chief Procurement Officer, and Anne Bologna, managing director to corporate operations.

It was Sloan who recruited Delanghe to DDB from Powell Communications in 2010. She oversaw PR for sibling digital shop Tribal DDB, as well as the main U.S. agency. Earlier she worked at Robinson Lerer & Montgomery.

Meanwhile, Kempner rejoins CP+B as the agency has expanded beyond North America. The shop just moved into new offices in London. Outside the U.S., the agency also has offices in Toronto (where MDC is based) and Gothenburg, Sweden. But don’t expect the agency to open offices in dozens of markets. MDC corporate executives stress the model relies on technology to service clients globally from a handful of offices.

Kempner is also developing a new CP+B produced program that will focus on successful women in business. The new effort comes after a four-year stint for Kempner as host of the Internet radio business program "The Hook," which featured content about the PR and advertising fields.