The Capital Group [profile] team just said goodbye to their first full-time media spokesperson. Watch for the new media relations chief to expand his team soon.

After two decades with the Los Angeles-based powerhouse behind the American Funds, media relations vice president Chuck Freadhoff, 67, retired last week, on March 31. Freadhoff is handing the media relations reins to Tom Joyce.

"We are in the process of growing [the media relations team]," Freadhoff tells MFWire. "We are speaking out more, sharing our thoughts more, are more interested in engaging and getting our message out than we were say five years ago."

Indeed, Freadhoff's time at Cap Group has coincided with the company becoming more responsive to the media. When he joined 20 years ago, Freadhoff started as a senior writer, with an "adjunct duty in media relations."

"As that role grew and I moved from focusing primarily on writing to primarily focusing on media relations, ultimately that became my full-time job," Freadhoff says, confirming that he "was the first one at Cap Group dedicated exclusively to media relations."

Joyce joined Cap Group in May 2014, after working with US Bank, Aviva, Sallie Mae, Carmichael Lynch Spong, American Express Financial Advisors (now Ameriprise), and Pru. Freadhoff says that he and Joyce "have been working very closely" over the past year. Ken Masson, a New York-based senior writer with a journalism background, also supports the media relations effort. Joyce is also hiring two more people in LA and one in New York, all for the media relations team.

As for Freadhoff, he spent 25 years across the U.S. and Europe as a reporter. His final 10 reporting years were at LA-based Investor's Business Daily, where he wrote about economics and international trade. And then he joined Cap Group.

"I've been here 20 years, my wife has retired. It's a natural time for me to move on to the next chapter," Freadhoff says.

Freadhoff has published six mystery novels (three through traditional publishers and three self-published). He says he has another book about half done, and looks forward to finishing it (and perhaps writing more) in retirement.

"I love working at Capital. It's a great place. It's exciting to be here," Freadhoff says. "There comes a time when you just say, you know, the time is right."

The thing that I will carry with me is the fundamental truth of the idea of investing for the long-term and having a good investment manager. Investing has to be for the long-term. Over 20 years I've gained a real-world appreciation of why that's true. [For an individual investor], being successful isn't easy, but it's not complicated.

 

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