LAUSANNE—SportAccord, an organization representing Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations and bodes, has formed an exclusive partnership with Burson-Marsteller. The new alliance means Burson-Marsteller will become SportAccord’s exclusive communications advisor and will be the recommended service provider to SportAccord’s 107 member organizations. Leading the partnership for Burson-Marsteller are Dennis Landsbert-Noon, chairman of Burson-Marsteller’s sport practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, located in Brussels, and Rhonda Brauer, managing director, global marketing team, based in Los Angeles.

LONDON—Ogilvy Public Relations London has appointed Ben Lock (pictured) to lead the office's first dedicated issues and crisis team. In his new role, he will provide crisis counsel to Ogilvy's roster of issues management clients, while evolving the agency's training program. Lock has been with Ogilvy Public Relations in London for eight years, working with clients from sectors including financial services, oil & gas, construction, pharmaceuticals and FMCG.

MUNICH—Knut Engelmann is joining Communications & Network Consulting (CNC) as a partner in the Frankfurt office, where he will work alongside existing partner Mirko Wollrab. Engelmann previously was managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Germany, the German language website of the Wall Street Journal, as well as news agency Dow Jones Newswires in Germany. Prior to that Engelmann worked for 16 years for Thomson Reuters.

LONDON—The life sciences team at College Hill has added six new clients. In Europe, the team has been commissioned by France-based Nanobiotix, Austria-based Hookipa Biotech, and Germany-based AiCuris. In Australia, new clients include ASX-listed Antisense Therapeutics as well as Medical Research Commercialisation Fund portfolio companies Polyactiva and Helmedix.

LONDON—Beattie Communications has launched a specialist marketing team to serve the charity sector. With 162,000 registered charities in Britain, Beattie Communications’ chairman Gordon Beattie says he sees the sector as a growing market for the company. The charity communications and marketing team will operate as part of Beattie Group’s Only Marketing brand.

LONDON—Berkeley PR has hired former Whiteoaks board director Louise Burke for a new account director role. She brings more than two decades of agency, in-house and freelance PR experience to the consultancy and will play a central role in international campaign coordination, reporting to director Paul Stallard. Burke left Whiteoaks in 2006 to establish Zapp Communications, which provided freelance PR and marketing services to technology, healthcare and construction companies and PR agencies, and most recently completed a year's tenure as marketing and communications manager at data storage preservation specialist Arkivum.

LONDON—The University of Westminster has launched a new Centre for Social Media Research and a new Masters degree in Social Media. The CSMR will conduct and coordinate research into social, cultural, and political-economic aspects of social media, and will also explore how social media might transform the practice of research itself. The centre will be led by Professor David Gauntlett, and the MA programme by Professor Christian Fuchs and Professor Graham Meikle.