Clockwise from top left – Connect manager partner Andy Sawford; Stratagem director Gráinne Walsh; Stratagem founder and outgoing director Quintin Oliver.

Connect, the Westminster-based public affairs and planning communications specialist, has joined with Stratagem, Northern Ireland’s largest public affairs agency. While technically an acquisition, it is positioned as a merger, with Stratagem continuing to operate with its own brand.

The move grows the overall Connect group team to 35 consultants and its projected group fee income to £3m, making it one of the UK’s largest public affairs focused agencies that is independently owned.

Gráinne Walsh, Stratagem’s head of consultancy since 2013, will take over the role of director from Quintin Oliver. Gráinne will lead the Stratagem team in Belfast and become a member of the Connect leadership team.