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Brings More than 30 Years of Experience in Corporate Communications, Healthcare, Crisis Management, Investor Relations, Government Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Joins Co-General Manager Coby King in Helping to Further Expand the Agency's Presence in Highly Competitive Los Angeles Marketplace

LOS ANGELES, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- MWW Group (www.mww.com), one of the nation's top 10 public relations firms, announced today that David Langness has joined the company as co-general manager of its Los Angeles office. Langness will work alongside current General Manager Coby King to further increase the firm's presence in Los Angeles. Langness brings more than 30 years of experience across a broad range of communications disciplines including media relations, crisis communications, healthcare, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, government relations, investor relations, business development, marketing, strategic planning and development.

"David is an exceptional talent and an extremely respected and accomplished executive. In addition to his deep expertise across a broad range of disciplines, David brings an extensive crisis communications background and has designed and driven media response campaigns involving multiple government and media investigations, civil and criminal trials, statewide and national legislative issues and Congressional hearings," said Michael W. Kempner, president and CEO of MWW Group. "He joins Coby King in forming a great leadership team that further solidifies our position among the major players in Southern California. David's media, corporate, environmental and healthcare background is the perfect complement to Coby's public affairs expertise."

Prior to joining MWW Group, Langness served as Vice President of Public Relations at Fraser Communications, where he led the company's public relations division overseeing the strategic communications initiatives for a wide range of healthcare, green, non-profit, crisis communications and cause-related clients. During his tenure at Fraser, Langness was responsible for coordinating regional and national integrated communications campaigns for a client base that included the United Way, UCLA, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the County of Los Angeles, the Presidential Climate Action Project and multiple hospital networks.

Previously, Langness served for five years as director of corporate communications at Tenet Healthcare Corporation where he led public relations, crisis communications and marketing initiatives for forty hospitals. Additionally, Langness conceptualized, designed and managed the labor communications strategy for the corporation and its more than 100,000 employees.

Prior to Tenet, Langness spent four years as director of health sciences communications at UCLA Medical Center/School of Medicine where he managed a staff of 14 marketing communications, education and publications professionals. Previously, he served as senior vice president of communications at COHR, Inc. where he managed the national engineering company's communications and government relations program.

Before COHR, Langness served a ten year stint at the Healthcare Association of Southern California where, as vice president of communications, he acted as senior media spokesperson and public policy strategist for the 300-hospital regional healthcare trade and educational association. Previously, he acted as director of communications at Comprehensive Care Corporation where he conceived, implemented and led the communications and government relations strategy for the nationwide behavioral healthcare/hospital corporation. Earlier in his career, Langness spent five years as a journalist where we contributed to such outlets as United Press International, Rolling Stone magazine and New Times.

Langness is a founding board member of Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles, where he has worked on issues of poverty and homelessness for the past 24 years. He also serves on several boards of directors, including the Finding Grace Homelessness Institute, the Health Care Leadership Advisory Board of the Gallup Organization and the Homeless Voicemail Project in the Bay Area. He has led multiple disaster-relief airlifts to needy countries across the globe including the post-revolutionary Philippines, El Salvador during the guerilla war and Albania during the NATO bombing. Langness holds both a bachelor's degree in English from Arizona State University and is a correspondent and literary critic for Paste Magazine.

About MWW Group

MWW Group is one of the nation's top ten public relations agencies and is known for its results-driven approach to public relations and "Aim High. Deliver" commitment to client service. For four years in a row, MWW Group was honored with the #1 ranking in the Holmes Report agency client satisfaction survey. MWW Group achieved top rankings in the categories of account leadership, strength of account team, creativity, strategy and planning, and program execution. In 2008, MWW Group was named PR Agency of the Year by The American Business Awards and Mid-size PR Firm of the Year by PR News, in recognition of the firm's growth, strategic account leadership and industry-leading employee retention. MWW Group is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG).