LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Chargers, relocating to the city from San Diego, have named Josh Rupprecht vice president of public relations. He joins from the UCLA athletic department, where he served as senior associate athletic director for communications.  Prior to UCLA, Rupprecht spent 13 years with the Los Angeles Lakers’ public relations department.

SACRAMENTO, CA—The Western States Petroleum Association has named Kevin Slagle as vice president, strategic communications, a newly created position. Before joining the team at WSPA, Kevin was a senior vice president at Ogilvy Public Relations in Sacramento for five years. In addition, Kara Siepmann joins the communications team as manager, media relations, after serving as commander of the 69th Public Affairs Detachment in the California Army National Guard. Julie Berge joins as manager, public relations. she most recently was a social media and brand communications manager at VSP Global.

SAN DIEGO—Biocom, the association representing the California life science industry, has appointed Julie Ames to the position of vice president of corporate communications. Ames will report directly to Biocom's president and CEO and will be responsible for instituting programs that effectively communicate the mission of the association. Prior to joining Biocom, she most recently served as president and founder of the Cambridge Group, and before that was executive director of global public relations at Life Technologies.

BOSTON—Ziopharm Oncology, a biopharmaceutical company focused on new immunotherapies, has appointed Amy Trevvett as vice president of investor relations and corporate communications. Trevvett most recently served as director of investor relations and corporate communications at HeartWare International. Earlier, she served in communications and investor relations roles at both Alkermes and Sepracor (now Sunovion Pharmaceuticals).

OTTAWA—Tetra Bio-Pharma has named Edward Miller as vice president, investor relations and corporate communications. Most recently, Miller served as director, investor relations and corporate communications at IntelGenx Corp. and before that worked at Paladin Labs.