LONDON—Speyside Corporate Relations, the consultancy that focuses on emerging markets, has hired Chris Dobson as president.

Dobson, who previously led EMEA emerging markets at Edelman, reunites with Speyside CEO Ian Herbison and chairman Alastair McLeish, former leadership colleagues from Mmd, the Central European focused consultancy sold to Huntsworth in 2006.

At Speyside, Dobson is charged with overseeing growth in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). To date, Speyside's operations have focused in particular on Latin America, where it operates from offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, but the firm also has a presence in Warsaw, Moscow, Istanbul and Kenya.

Dobson played a key role developing Mmd across 18 European markets plus Russia and Turkey, serving as COO, then CEO after the sale. After two years consolidating the agency as part of Grayling, he joined Edelman in 2011. Since leaving Edelman in 2013, he has focused on a number of entrepreneurial ventures.

Dobson is Speyside’s fourth senior appointment in recent times, following the hires of Stephen Lock as SVP and Brazil country manager; Jana Nelson to lead Mexico; and, David Ross as Colombia country manager.

"We are delighted Chris has come on board — he is an outstanding leader with a strong track record of building a consultancy offering across complex and varied markets," said Herbison. "While our Latin American network continues to grow exponentially, we are also seeing increasing demand for our support in other emerging markets, across Africa and more established markets such as Russia, Turkey, Poland and others. These are markets where Chris’ vast experience will be invaluable."