LONDON — Ready10 has appointed Shannon Serrao as a senior associate director to support the agency’s growth. She joins from Stir, where she launched and led the agency’s content division, and has also worked at Frank, Mischief and M&C Saatchi. Serrao will work with Ready10 managing partners Kate Addy and Sophie Diner.

LONDON — Strategic comms and public affairs firm Blakeney has made three appointments. Mario Theodorou joins the agency as digital director, having been digital director and head of production at MHP Group. Theodorou began his career at News Group before founding digital agencies Hijack Media and Falcon Scott. Fiona Brown joins as an associate director after 11 years at Hill & Knowlton, working across the food and nutrition, retail, travel, energy, and public and third sectors. Theo Bamber joins Blakeney as a senior account director, having previously worked at FTI Consulting and Weber Shandwick.

LONDON — Arts, culture and entertainment agency Riot Communications has made a raft of promotions and new hires in its campaigns team, a year after coming under the leadership of new MD Caitlin Allen. Sofia Saghir joins as campaigns manager following roles at publishing house HarperCollins and specialist book publishing PR agency Midas; Ruby Fitzgerald joins as a campaigns executive) and from a communications role in the charity and education sector; Emily Souders, whose clients include the Moomins character brand and publisher Pan Macmillan, has been promoted to campaigns director; and Niamh Houston, who joined Riot in August 2022, has been promoted to senior campaigns executive.

ABU DHABI — Research, intelligence, campaign and advisory consultancy CT Group has hired Nivine Afiouni (pictured) as a director as its adds an office in Abu Dhabi to its growing international network. Afiouni, who was previously an executive director at Sky News Arabia, will report to CT Group director Tim Fallon within the global campaigns practice, headed up by Sam Lyon, and will work with a number of international clients. CT’s latest office in Abu Dhabi is the ninth in its wholly-owned network and follows the opening of the office in Dubai in 2021.

LONDON — International integrated communications agency Liquid has appointed Andy West as non-executive director. West, who was group chief development officer of Hotwire until 2021, will provide Liquid with strategic guidance and support to help achieve its international growth ambitions. West, who has worked with technology clients including Zoom, McAfee and NetApp, has also acted as an advisor for agencies including Rally Point and Made by Giants, and last month struck a deal with US management consulting firm Pemberton to act as its UK partner.

LONDON — Financial services provider Canada Life UK has appointed Rebecca Gladstone as head of public policy, a newly-created role within the CEO’s office. Gladstone joins from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme where she was stakeholder and public affairs manager. She previously worked at FTI Consulting as a director in its strategic communications practice, where she acted as a financial services specialist. She began her career in insurance in the public affairs team at the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the trade association for the UK insurance and long-term savings industry and has also held public policy roles in the automotive and health sectors.

LONDON — B2B technology agency PAN Communications has refreshed its leadership team, after appointing Nia Evans as managing director this summer. Amy McRitchie join the team as head of client excellence, with an additional focus on DE&I and mental health and wellbeing, from Harvard, where she was an associate director and worked with clients including Sky, Vodafone Business, SAP and Huawei. Will Parrott joins from Propeller Group, where he headed the commerce practice, as director of business development and marketing. In addition, long-standing team member Laura West-Wilson has been promoted to head of PAN’s global partner network.

LONDON — Entertainment communications specialist agency DDA has appointed Laura Field to lead its consumer PR brand division. Field joins after six years at FleishmanHillard, where she was responsible for Omnicom’s integrated work for Unilever consumer brands, as well as leading campaigns for Samsung and spearheaded the agency’s membership of the UNstereotype Alliance. She joins as DDA seeks to capitalise on increasingly blurred lines between entertainment, content and consumer brand marketing strategy. The agency now has 140 staff across offices in London and Los Angeles working with Nestle brands including Maggi, San Pellegrino and Nespresso, as well as global film and TV studios, streamers and content creators.