Uproar PR announced Kanaris Group has acquired the firm from co-founders Mike Harris and Catriona Harris. The acquisition comes on the heels of eight years of significant growth for the international PR and social media firm. After the acquisition, the firm will focus on strategic and controlled growth with expanded service offerings and an increase in staff.
One of the country’s fastest growing companies three years running according to the Inc. 5000, Uproar PR finished 2018 with year-end revenue of $4.4 million, growth of nearly 10% from the previous year. Launched in 2011 with a focus on culture first, the firm has consistently been named a best place to work by both industry and mainstream media outlets including Top Company Culture by Entrepreneur Magazine, Orlando Business Journal Fast 50, Orlando Sentinel Top 100 Companies and Outside Magazine Best Places to Work.
Moving forward, Harris will remain with the company as CEO where she will continue to focus on client strategy and team development. Mike Harris will remain President and COO where his primary role is client acquisition and retention.
“The PR industry is fast-paced and stressful. Because of that, we wanted to create an environment where employees enjoyed coming to work and where there was a true team environment. In doing so, we believed—and quickly found to be true—that we would deliver the best results for clients. Happy employees make for happy clients. I look forward to continuing that culture during this next growth stage,” said Catriona Harris, CEO of Uproar PR.
To lead the firm through this next phase, Ermis Sfakiyanudis, Executive Director of Kanaris Group, will join as Executive Chairman at Uproar PR. Sfakiyanudis has over 20 years’ experience launching and leading successful companies in competitive markets. He has a deep passion for understanding product and service value, conveying that value simply for the target audience, and building the infrastructure to successfully deliver to the market.
“I have worked with Mike and Catriona for nearly 15 years and been a client several times over. Through that relationship I valued the quality work they did for my companies and always looked for our next working relationship. We talked for some time about how best to scale from the incredible foundation they’ve built at Uproar and I became personally invested in wanting to see the company continue to grow. My years of experience across multiple industries is a compliment to the work that Catriona, Mike and the entire Uproar team does on a daily basis for clients,” said Ermis Sfakiyanudis.
“After eight years of starting this agency and growing to nearly 60 people, we knew it was time to look to the next stage in Uproar’s development. We wanted a strategic buyer who could bring the next round of growth to Uproar so that we could continue with our vision of culture first. This will allow us to spend more time working directly with clients and our team to provide an even stronger level of service than we have in the past,” said Mike Harris.
