• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, November 4, 2015

John Saunders will succeed Dave Senay as president and CEO at FleishmanHillard, the Omnicom Group PR agency.

Saunders, 57, and a native of Dublin, Ireland, will begin his new duties effective immediately and will be based in St. Louis where the agency is headquartered.

Saunders was previously president for FleishmanHillard's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. In 1990, he and FleishmanHillard founded FleishmanHillard Saunders, which grew to become Ireland's number one public relations agency and one of the firm's most successful offices.

Senay is a 32-year Fleishman veteran who had been in the CEO role for nine years. He will remain with the firm as a consultant and to support the leadership transition, the company said.