LONDON — FleishmanHillard has hired former Coca-Cola European brand PR director Nina Bautista to lead its Unilever brand work globally.

In her new role, Bautista will focus on perception-change work and connecting brands to their audiences through culture, working with other Omnicom agency partners including Adam&Eve DDB and Haygarth.

Bautista joins the agency’s consumer and brand marketing team in London as director of brand marketing, reporting to EMEA head of brand and culture Lauren Winter, who said: “We experienced growth in many sectors in 2020 and are expanding the senior bench for brand beyond 2021.

"I’m absolutely thrilled that Nina has stepped into this new role at this very exciting time, and look forward to seeing the purposeful work come to fruition.”

Bautista has been a senior freelance consultant for the past three years, including in-house at Coca-Cola, where as PR brand director she focused on new product and brand launches such as Fuze Tea, Adez and Aquarius in Western Europe.

Before that, she was communications and client services director at UK agency Exposure for 11 years, where she was brand guardian for its Coca-Cola Company business.

FleishmanHillard UK’s consumer and brand marketing team launched five years ago. Recent client wins include Krispy Kreme, Samsung Global, Hyundai and Lands’ End.