Former Financial Times editor becomes Lehman PR person

Reuters is reporting that former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers has been named to a top communications job at Lehman Brothers, four months after he stepped down from the FT due to strategic differences with its owners.

I find the move interesting because I was in New York Friday and met with two Lehman PR people from the U.S. headquarters — Randy Whitestone and Brian Finnegan. Whitestone is a former Bloomberg and Associated Press reporter, while Finnegan is a former Newark Star-Ledger reporter. It seems as if Lehman is leaning heavily on finding journalists to staff its PR department.

Reuters writes about Gowers: “Gowers will become Lehman’s head of corporate communications, advertising and brand and marketing strategy for Europe. Since leaving the FT in November, he has been overseeing a government intellectual property law initiative and writing a column for the Sunday Times.”

Later, the wire service notes, “Since he was replaced by U.S. managing editor Lionel Barber, Pearson Chief Executive Marjorie Scardino has said the FT would increase coverage of finance and business in the City of London, and the paper has ended a long-standing hiring freeze.”

Read the story here.