Nelson CEO Resigns

Nelson Communications Group founder Robert Nelson has sold majority interest in the public relations agency to five senior partners and stepped down as president and chief executive of the 19-year-old firm.

Nelson Communications, with 60 employees in three offices and $7.3 million in billings, is one of the largest independent agencies in the country, according to the industry’s leading trade journal.

Nelson, a former Orange County supervisor’s aide who began the company as a political consulting firm, remains chairman and a major shareholder. He has lived in Idaho for several years and said he sold a large piece of the company to his partners because “it is time for others to . . . direct the agency’s future.”

Donna Lucas, founder of the firm’s Sacramento office, will be president and chief executive. She will be based in Sacramento.