HPS Insights

Gotham Research Group Joins Ballast Research, Hamilton Place Strategies, Flag Media Analytics, and alva

June 29, 2022
7 min read

WASHINGTON –Ballast Research (Ballast), Hamilton Place Strategies (HPS), Flag Media Analytics (Flag), and alva are thrilled to announce the addition of New York-based Gotham Research Group (Gotham). The firms are brought together through the support of Falfurrias Capital Partners (FCP), building on months of exciting growth as the firms come together to offer an industry-leading stakeholder management solution.

Gotham, led by Dr. Jeffrey Levine, Ph.D., delivers customized insights to management teams in all 11 sectors of the S&P 500, trade associations, and advocacy groups, as well as public officials and political candidates. Gotham specializes in innovative custom research designed to inform branding/positioning initiatives, advertising campaigns, policy issue campaigns, crisis communications, and digital strategy.  

“We’re excited to join this growing family offering an integrated solution to stakeholder management,” said Gotham President Jeff Levine. “Gotham’s expertise in attitudinal and behavioral research is a perfect complement to the analytical public affairs, deep policy research, and advanced analytics offered by Ballast, HPS, Flag, and alva. Together, our work will provide unparalleled understanding of the complex stakeholder issues our clients face across a wide range of industries.”

Gotham adds a new dimension to the platform created by Ballast, HPS, Flag, and alva, as it grows into a comprehensive menu of services to help companies manage their relationships and reputations with all stakeholders.

“Stakeholder management is becoming increasingly complex, as companies are navigating challenges associated with competitors, customers, employees, investors, governments, and industry activists,” said FCP Senior Advisor Alex Jutkowitz, chair of the group. “The strategic growth of our capabilities will allow us to better arm leaders with the insights, metrics, data, and strategy needed to succeed on a global scale.”

The investment in Gotham follows FCP’s earlier majority investments in Ballast Research, HPS, and alva announced in the summer of 2021.

About Ballast Research (Ballast)

For nearly a decade, Ballast Research has provided direct feedback from senior policymakers through quantitative and qualitative research. Ballast clients—including Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and trade associations—leverage Ballast’s data-driven insights to validate impact, identify opportunities, and determine optimal strategy and investment for future success.

About Hamilton Place Strategies (HPS)

HPS is an analytical public affairs consulting firm. The firm works on complex issues in highly regulated industries, partnering with clients to advance their most important priorities. HPS was founded in 2010 by partners Tony Fratto and Stuart Siciliano.

About Flag Media Analytics (Flag)

Flag is a next-generation news monitoring service—it uses both professionals and technology to support clients. The Flag process is designed to inform the decision-making cycle for media engagement and improve planning, feedback, and reporting for public affairs and communications teams. Flag delivers real-time alerts directly into the inboxes of those engaging and responding to media every day. Its team of dedicated media analysts is trained in the latest media aggregation tools and conducts hands-on analysis to deliver the news and insights clients need to make more informed decisions.

About alva

alva is a stakeholder intelligence platform that provides data-rich, real-time technology to companies across industries, including financial services, consumer, healthcare, and professional services. The platform can deliver rich insights by analyzing more than 25 million pieces of content every day across 100 languages, 150 countries, and over 500,000 individual publications.

About Gotham Research Group (Gotham)

Founded in 2007, Gotham Research Group is a New York-based research and consulting firm specializing in full-service custom research and advanced analytics. Gotham’s research programs employ a range of traditional research tools (telephone/online surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, market mix modeling) as well as a unique set of research methods designed to enhance its ability to create more actionable and predictive information for clients. 

About Falfurrias Capital Partners (FCP)

Falfurrias Capital Partners is a Charlotte-based private equity investment firm that has raised approximately $1.9 billion across five funds. The firm invests in growing, middle-market businesses in sectors where the firm’s operational resources, relationships and sector expertise can be employed to complement portfolio company executive teams in support of growth objectives. Falfurrias Capital Partners employs a proprietary, research-based process called “Industry First” to identify markets with durable growth trends, construct a thesis based on research findings, and partner with management teams and companies to create strategic value. For more information, visit www.falfurriascapital.com.

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