National award-winning public relations, investor relations and integrated marketing firm, Lambert & Co., has named Walter Ward III chief of staff. Continuing to break agency norms, this strategic hire aims to maximize internal operations, merger and acquisition integration, and accelerate new services and innovation for the firm’s growing family of companies, which includes:
- TiiCKER – fintech startup linking individual investors to public companies and their brands through perks, content and free trading
- EQUALSIGN – diversity, equity and inclusion consultancy focused on diverse board development for public companies and private equity firms, environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) consulting, and strategic audience engagement, marketing and communications to multicultural demographics
- 9thWonder – award-winning advertising and creative agency specializing in brand strategy, creative design, media buying, web design and cultural marketing through its Consumer X practice
- Camber Engage – legal consultancy providing fractional general counsel, crisis and issues support
In this new role, Ward will be responsible for overseeing strategic initiatives on behalf of the firm’s CEO, Jeff Lambert. This includes spearheading the execution of business operations and managing Lambert’s strategic plan and M&A pipeline.
“I’m fired up to bring Walter into Lambert and our family of companies to allow me to scale my time and our growth, and landing a comms-educated MBA couldn’t be more aligned with our future,” said founder and CEO Jeff Lambert. “Walter will be a key voice and decision maker for our growing cross-functional teams as we evolve beyond our PR and IR roots into a landscape of integrated marketing and capital markets expertise. His extensive experience will help us ramp up a business model that we created to challenge the industry as we know it, with the launch of disruptors such as TiiCKER and EQUALSIGN and more on the way.”
Prior to joining Lambert, Ward worked at the management consulting firm MorganFranklin in Washington D.C. where he most recently led two multi-million-dollar credit card technology transformation projects for a $350 billion bank, overseeing technical teams, stakeholder management and communications. Before that, he provided strategic execution counsel to a number of large-scale financial service firms as a management consultant for BTS, USA in New York.
Ward also worked for one of the largest healthcare insurance providers where he was responsible for the redesign and management of the company’s enterprise performance dashboard process for the offices of the CEO and board of directors. Additionally, Ward has extensive experience as an auditor focused on operational control deficiencies and process improvement for a multi-billion-dollar automotive manufacturing company.
“I am excited to be part of the growing Lambert team and aim to be a transformational leader by empowering my colleagues and providing them with the tools and resources necessary for success not just in communications, but in c-suites and board rooms,” said Ward. “I was inspired by the growth and momentum at the firm and its family of companies and look forward to creating space for our team to thrive.”
Ward holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta and a Bachelor of Arts degree in advertising from Michigan State University.