Hill+Knowlton Strategies is an American global public relations consulting company, headquartered in New York City, United States, with over 80 offices in more than 40 countries. The company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1927 by John W. Hill and has been led since 2019 by Chairman & CEO AnnaMaria DeSalva. It is owned by the WPP Group. The firm has been involved in multiple controversial public relations campaigns over its history, most notably the false testimony by Nayirah and PR campaign on behalf of the Government of Kuwait in the lead up to the Gulf War. History Early history The company that became Hill+Knowlton Strategies was founded in 1927 by newspaper reporter and businessman John Hill in Cleveland, Ohio. Hill's first two clients were Cleveland-based Union Trust Company, and the Otis Steel Company. When Union Trust Company was shut down by the Great Depression in 1933, Hill hired its former director of advertising and publicity Don Knowlton, and they together established Hill & Knowlton of Cleveland. Hill moved to New York City in 1934 to open a new Hill & Knowlton office. Knowlton remained in Cleveland and operated the original location until his retirement in 1964. Hill served as chairman and chief executive until 1962, but remained on the firm's policy committee, and continued to go into the office until shortly before his death in 1977. Starting in the 1930s, the firm became known for its representation of steel manufacturers, which it also did during the steel strike of 1952. The company also represented the dairy industry during congressional debates on margarine regulation in the late 1940s. Other early clients included the tobacco industry, which the firm worked for when smoking was first publicly linked to cancer in 1953, as well as many other industries including the aircraft industry, the American Shipbuilders Council, the National Retail Dry Goods Association, the National Fertilizer Association, and soap producers. When Hill died in 1977, the company had 560 employees, with 36 offices in the United States and 18 abroad. 1980s and 1990s The firm was acquired in 1980 by the JWT Group, one of the largest advertising agencies at the time. Following the acquisition, Hill & Knowlton continued to operate as an independent entity under the JWT Group. The company expanded to China in 1984, and acquired both Gray & Company and Carl Byoir & Associates, two public relations firms with a