LONDON—Cohn & Wolfe has named Geoff Beattie to lead a new unit that will advise clients on corporate strategy.

Beattie, a nine-year agency veteran who has latterly led its global corporate practice, becomes global head of strategic consulting, overseeing a division that will provide such services as market proposition and positioning, employee change management and brand strategy consulting.

It is understood that the WPP PR firm is in the final stages of identifying Beattie's successor as global corporate practice head.

"With the launch of our 2015 Authentic Brands research across 12 markets, Cohn & Wolfe uncovered unique insights into the challenges facing businesses and brands today, which helped us provide companies with a roadmap to meet those challenges head on," said Beattie. "With our brand-centric approach, we aim to strengthen Cohn & Wolfe’s business across all of our core disciplines: consumer, healthcare, technology and corporate."

Beattie's clients have included Shell, Nokia, Sinar Mas Group and Boehringer Ingelheim. Prior to Cohn & Wolfe, he was CEO of Pleon UK.