LONDON—Tariq Ahmed is set to hire PR agency support after joining online education player Lynda.com as EMEA head of communications.

Ahmed takes on the newly-created position after eight months as Intuit Europe's head of communications. He previously spent four years as CA Technologies' global communications manager.

He told the Holmes Report that the new position reflects an expansion of Lynda.com's PR and marketing capabilities, in a bid to put the privately-held American company "on the map."

Founded in 1995, Lynda.com received investment of $103m from VC firms Accel Partners Spectrum Equity last year. It has recently expanded its European presence, furthermore, by acquiring online video rival Video2Brain.

Ahmed reports to Alex Zivoder, Lynda.com's VP and GM of EMEA. The company does not currently have a global communications head. 

Ahmed noted that the he will be conducting chemistry meetings with agencies as he looks to step up Lynda.com's messaging in the EMEA region. "It feels like a best kept secret," he said. "They haven't really done any marketing or comms in EMEA."

Prior to joining CA in 2009, Ahmed spent almost six years with HP, leading UK comms for its personal systems group.