LONDON — Hill+Knowlton Strategies has expanded its ESG team in the UK with two senior hires, Tom Fern and Libby Wyman, and the secondment of Megan Castilla from H+K’s LA office.

The trio join the Better Impact team, which provides sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) consultancy expertise across the agency’s industry sector teams around how brands can build long-term, sustainable and shared business value and how to measure and improve the impact of sustainability strategies.

Tom Fern (pictured, centre) joins as a director, bringing over 16 years’ in-house and consulting experience as a senior ESG, sustainability and strategic communications adviser. He was previously head of communications for the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) since 2018, and has also worked at Brunswick, The European Climate Foundation and Blurred.

During his time with IIGCC, Fern led global communications activity for the US$55 trillion backed Climate Action 100+ investor engagement initiative, which encourages the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to take necessary action on climate change.

Wyman (pictured, left)  joins as a senior associate director. She was previously at eBay, where she led the strategic direction of Charity, eBay’s multi-million-pound fundraising arm. She has created purpose and sustainability programmes for multinationals, start-ups and international non-profits across the agriculture, health and technology sectors and was an associate director at B-Corp agency Gong Communications.

Castilla (pictured, right), who is vice president and deputy lead of H+K’s Better Impact Practice in the US, is on secondment to the UK for the next year to drive the practice forward internationally. She has been with the agency for four years and was previously at Allison+Partners.

The appointments follow the promotion of Chris Pratt last year to managing director of Better Impact, having previously led the agency’s energy and industrials business in the UK.

Simon Whitehead, CEO of H+K London, said: “We already have several Better Impact specialists in our industry sector teams, but I have always believed that we would benefit from creating a central team of experienced ESG specialists so that we can further leverage this part of our consulting business for all our clients. With Chris we have an outstanding leader, and I am now delighted to welcome Tom, Libby and Megan into our London business so that we can continue to grow this vital specialism in the months ahead.”

The Better Impact team have recently advised Bayer, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Cotton Council International and The US Cotton Trust Protocol. Earlier this year, the team also secured a mandate with leading climate change think tank E3G to work on the COP26 summit, advising brands on how best to engage with the summit and demonstrate climate leadership.