LONDON — Portland has hired former Bank of England executive director of communications Mike Peacock as a senior advisor, to advise corporate clients on economic and financial issues and support the growth of Portland’s financial communications practice, working with partner Simon Evans.

LONDON — Four Communications has appointed Matt de Gruchy, former chief executive of Ogilvy Healthworld UK and Open Health Communications, as CEO of its healthcare business, Four Health. De Gruchy replaces Emma Statham, who has left after 18 years with the agency.

LONDON — Insurance firm Standard Life, which was bought by Phoenix Group last year, has hired James Henderson as head of PR. He joins from the same role at Aegon UK, and has also worked at H+K Strategies and Citigate Dewe Rogerson. Henderson reports to Shellie Wells, Phoenix Group’s corporate communications director.

LONDON — Ruder Finn has made two new hires. Vruti Patel (pictured) joins as an account director to provide senior support across Ruder Finn’s global pharmaceutical and consumer health business. Vruti joins the team from Saatchi & Saatchi where she managed integrated communications programmes for Procter & Gamble FMCG brands including Pampers, Oral-B and Tampax. Sammy Chahil also joins Ruder Finn from Health Unlimited as a senior account manager.

LONDON — Health communications and medical affairs specialist Envision Pharma has promoted Paul Archer to the newly-created role of chief commercial strategy officer, with a remit to contribute to the firm’s revenue growth through new service offers. Archer joined the agency a year ago as director of corporate development. He has previously worked in senior strategy roles at healthcare agencies including 90Ten, Virgo Health, and Huntsworth’s ApotheCom and Medistrava.

PARIS — French agency StoriesOut, which specialises in innovation-led clients, is building a new English-speaking team, beginning with the appointment of Lindsey Williams as a senior consultant. Williams’ role is to structure the agency’s new offering and support existing clients who wish to develop their communications into English-speaking markets. Williams was previously international press manager for art and design PR specialist Agence Communic’art.

LONDON — Recipe box brand FeastBox and its sister company Red Rickshaw, an online grocer of hard-to-find ingredients have promoted head of growth Liam Howard-Jones to chief marketing officer, with a seat on the board, as the businesses embark on growth plans. Both brands are in the process of being relaunched with a new look and feel.

COMO, ITALY —  NoBorders Communications, an agency specialising in securing lasting media coverage for industrial and B2B companies, has appointed Mike Hall to lead the business. Hall has been an independent consultant and partner at the firm for the past two years. He previously held senior EMEA corporate communications roles at Ingersoll Rand and DuPont.