LONDON — Edelman has made three new senior hires into its sustainability, social impact and purpose team in the UK.

Mary Pollard (pictured) joins as executive director from Portland, where she had led the sustainability and purpose practice since 2019, advising brands including AstraZeneca, Unilever, Mondelez International, HSBC, Sky and Diageo on sustainability, social responsibility and purpose-led communications. She was formerly head of society communications at Diageo.

Pollard will co-lead the practice with executive director Mark McGinn, who joined the agency in 2018 from O2, where he was head of partnerships and social impact. Before that he was head of international marketing and communications at cause-related marketing initiative Red.

Edelman UK co-CEO Ruth Warder said: “We have a dynamic partnership in Mary and Mark. Mark is an exceptional advisor and practitioner in sustainability and social impact and Mary has a stellar Corporate Reputation pedigree. Bringing their deep sector expertise across all industries will be of tremendous value for our clients, work and team.”

Also joining the team are associate directors Laura Huizenga and Luke Hopkins. Huizenga has spent the past nine years working at Nike, where she was most recently purpose brand director, responsible for launching Nike UK’s Purpose strategy. She also co-designed community initiatives with athletes including Marcus Rashford and Ramla Ali.

Hopkins joins Edelman from Mind+Matter, formerly Pegasus, where he provided senior strategic counsel across veterinary pharmaceuticals, FMCG, NGOs, charities, and the agricultural sector.

The firm has plans to further grow the sustainability, social impact and purpose team in the coming months.

The hires follow Edelman’s commitment last week to apply a series of litmus tests to existing and future clients to determine whether it can work with them based on their approach to climate change.