LONDON — Brands2Life has appointed Carolyn Irwin (pictured) as a managing director to lead its corporate and purpose division. She will be responsible for the agency’s purpose proposition, and overseeing sustainability communications. Irwin, who will join the agency’s board, previously worked at BCW for more than five years, where she was the UK lead for corporate reputation and responsible business, as well as developing its global sustainability proposition. Irwin has worked with brands including AstraZeneca, Bank of America, Estee Lauder Companies, HSBC, Huawei, Sky and Swissport.

LONDON — The Romans has appointed Sophie Nicholson to lead its fourth international office in Amsterdam. Nicholson becomes a partner and MD of the new office, which will focus on PR, social and influencer campaigns for domestic and international brands, including sports and entertainment clients. She joins from Havas agency One Green Bean, where she was EMEA head of PR. Before joining One Green Bean in 2016, Nicholson worked at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in London and Hausmann Communications in Australia.

LONDON — Entertainment specialist agency Premier has promoted its director of awards Angela Smith to the newly-created role of managing director of filmed entertainment, with a seat on the agency’s executive board. The filmed entertainment division was created last year when the agency merged its film, television, digital and awards teams. Smith has been at Premier since 2019. As an independent consultant she worked in UK and International film publicity at studios including Columbia Tri Star, Twentieth Century Fox and FilmFour. She was also head of Press at the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts and the London Film Festival before co-founding boutique film publicity consultancy Emfoundation.

LONDON — MHP Group has made two public affairs hires ahead of the next UK general election, to expand its Labour advisory capabilities. Joshua Kaile, former policy adviser to shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon, joins as an associate director and Atul Hatwal, editor of the Labour Uncut website, becomes a senior advisor. Both will report to head of public affairs Tim Snowball.

LONDON — Finn Partners has appointed Oliver Parry as senior partner with responsibility for leading and developing the agency's UK financial services team. Parry was previously a managing director in the capital markets and financial communications team at Teneo, where he advised financial and UK listed institutions on issues including ESG messaging and strategy development. A former partner at Instinctif, where he helped launch the firm’s sustainability practice, he has also worked at Citigate Dewe Rogerson. Parry has also held senior communications, policy and public affairs roles at the Institute of Directors and the UK’s corporate governance, audit and accountancy regulator, the Financial Reporting Council.

LONDON — Global financial services communications consultancy Cognito has appointed Nick Corrin as director and head of asset management, to lead the agency’s growing investment management client portfolio. Corrin joins from Instinctif Partners and has advised clients on protecting and growing assets, managing ESG and stewardship issues and adapting to disruptive technology.

LONDON — Publicis sustainability consultancy Salterbaxter has appointed Dax Lovegrove as head of sustainability. Most recently, Lovegrove was director of sustainability at Versace, and has also held sustainability roles at Jimmy Choo, Swarovski and Kingfisher.

LONDON — Rise at Seven has promoted PR director Will Hobson to vice president of PR, to lead growth in the US. In his new role, based in New York, Hobson will oversee Rise at Seven’s PR and creative teams and lead digital PR across North America. He currently sits on the agency’s senior leadership team after founding the London arm of the digital and social agency and growing it to 25 people in two years.

LONDON — Ketchum’s former head of strategy Helen Chapman is joining brand and social impact agency We Are Futures, which connects brands with young people and their families through social impact initiatives, as head of strategy. Chapman joins from Sodalities Tech, a US-based tech team backed by a global AI investor that develops wellbeing apps for young people. She was at Ketchum between 2019 and 2021. We Are Futures works with PR agency clients and last year partnered with Launch on The Great British School Trip campaign for Hyundai. Its other clients include NatWest, Samsung, McDonalds, Hyundai and Sky.