LONDON — Hill+Knowlton Strategies has made four senior female promotions in the UK to newly-created roles: operations MD Pippa Burridge (pictured, second right) is promoted to chief operating officer, overseeing expanded needs in operations, resourcing, talent and recruitment; creative strategy MD Eleanor Sullivan (second left) becomes chief strategy officer, in addition to her existing role leading the UK’s Innovation + Creative Hub and the UK’s creative strategy team; former technology, commerce and entertainment MD Charlie Hopcraft (left) is promoted to group MD across the three sector; and Jessica Walsh, managing director of healthcare in the UK (right), expands her remit after a strong year of growth to lead healthcare across H+K’s European business.

LONDON — The PHA Group has named Mike Chivers as its new creative director. Chivers joins following a four-year stint at Edelman London and will work closely with the agency’s regional hubs in London, Manchester, Leeds and Wokingham. Whilst at Edelman, Chivers transitioned from the brand team to the Deportivo creative practice, before helping to shape a new department dedicated to connected storytelling and amplifying integrated creative briefs across social. His client experience includes Heineken, Mars Inc, HSBC, Primark, Starbucks and Nissan Europe.

LONDON — Premier has promoted James Jenkins-Bruce to the new role of senior director of entertainment and consumer brands, as part of the agency’s restructuring of its 20-strong gaming and wider brands department, which provides PR and support services to the gaming, music, publishing, destinations and hospitality, festivals and venues, charities and sport sectors. Jenkins-Bruce will lead the department alongside recent hires Keri Perkins, Mike Diver and Sam Roberts, with director of brands, Kate Stote. Perkins becomes strategic director, having run PR at Nando’s for over a decade. Diver will oversee the gaming division, having joined from LADbible Group, where he ran GAMINGbible. Roberts will manage the music client portfolio, after working at Fender, Amazon Music and LD Communications. Recent account wins at Premier included the Booker Prize, Fender, Labyrinth, the BAFTA Film Awards and Vevo.

LONDON — Former UK government special advisor Sarah Ludlow has returned to Portland as partner for strategy and growth Ludlow spent 7 years at Portland until January 2022, when she left to work as a special adviser for Liz Truss in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. During this time, she worked on the UK’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the launch of the Government’s International Development Strategy. She also supported Truss during the Conservative leadership campaign as press secretary and went on to serve as head of strategic communications in 10 Downing Street. Ludlow will work closely with chief executive Vikki Dean to deliver the company’s 2023 growth strategy.

LONDON — Global communications consultancy Bladonmore has hired of Lucas Manley as executive producer to oversee its film department alongside executive producer and director Nick McAlpine. Previously, Manley was at global production house The Edge Picture Company as a senior producer. Manley will work across Bladonmore’s roster of large-cap clients, serviced from its offices in London, New York, Los Angeles and Dubai.

LONDON — Global reputation research specialist Echo Research has appointed four new members to its client advisory board: former Body Shop activism director Kate Levine; ex-McDonald’s corporate vice president Julian Hilton-Johnson; life sciences entrepreneur and non-executive director Liz Shanahan; and global business adviser Jan Dauman.

LONDON — Splendid has introduced a new senior leadership team structure. Niki Hunter Ekins, formerly MD of Splendid Communications, has become group impact officer for The Splendid Collective, the agency group that also includes music and youth culture specialist Kingdom Collective and Riot Communications, which was acquired last year. Chrissy Kellaway has been promoted to media and operations Director for Splendid Communications, and joins client partnerships director Debi Clay-Moore and creative director Fran Langdon to take over the day-to-day leadership of Splendid Communications. The restructure comes on the back of a year that saw Splendid add 16 clients to its roster including Burger King, Dorset Cereals, Ginsters, Twinings and Whitley Neill.

LONDON — Catherine Jordan Jones has joined Barley Communications as a director. She takes up the post having worked with the purpose-driven communications agency in recent years on a freelance basis. Jordan Jones’ new role will see her continue to lead Barley’s work with not-for-profit clients Borough Market, Leadenhall Market, Nordoff Robbins and the Scar Free Foundation. She will also draw on her experience in education to spearhead Barley’s learning and development programme. The appointment after a period of growth for the employee-owned agency, whose new clients over the past year include the Care Quality Commission, Compassion in World Farming, Ethical Tea Partnership, Keep Britain Tidy, the Institute of Physics and the Intellectual Property Office.

LONDON — Lodestone, a B Corp communications agency focused on education, technology, health and energy and environment, has hired Ben Russell as an associate to bolster its energy and environment practice, after 30% growth last year. Lodestone represents infrastructure and clean energy clients including the Association for Decentralised Energy, Birmingham Energy Institute, the Energy Research Accelerator and one of the world’s largest fund managers investing exclusively in clean energy. Russell has led public affairs and media relations for a multi-billion-pound nuclear new build project and helped deliver key policy changes at a UK level and EU political and regulatory approvals to support the advancement of energy infrastructure development. He has also held senior in-house and consultancy positions, including leading on the communications for a high-profile enquiry and report within the NHS.

LONDON —Healthcare communications agency Stirred, which was launched in 2021 by former Pegasus directors Jo Spadaccino and Stuart Hehir, has added two senior consultants to its team. Jamie Whitburn was formerly head of communications at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and head of public affairs at Barts Health NHS Trust, with experience across media relations, issues and crisis management, public affairs, internal communications and awareness campaigns. April Rosson has spent her career in the pharmaceutical sector, both within agencies and in-house. She joins Stirred from women’s health firm Besins Healthcare.

LONDON — Intent Health has named a new senior leadership team for 2023 following a period of growth. Recently-appointed UK managing director Jenny Carrington-Elson, who was previously at Portland, director of creative production Priya Rekhi-Smith and director Richa Bhardwaj will form the executive leadership team at Intent, alongside founder and CEO Dr Jane Brearley. Additionally, Natasha Padhiar has been promoted to Account Director and will join the management team.

OXFORD, UK — Digital PR agency Bottle has added to its senior leadership team with two promotions to a new director level. Cath McElroy, who joined the agency four years ago after working at Exposure and FleishmanHillard, moves from senior editor to comms director, while Sophie Moore, who was previously at Mulberry, moves from senior digital planner to planning director. Both will report directly to the board.