CANNES, FRANCE — Cannes Lions has announced its awarding jury for the PR Lions this year. President Kat Thomas, founder and global chief creative officer at One Green Bean (pictured) is joined by Porter Novelli’s outgoing EMEA MD Fenella Grey; Ian Black, CEO of New Vegas in Brazil; Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, CMO at DoorDash; Lerato Songelwa, Hill & Knowlton South Africa MD; Marie Claire Maalouf, Edelman’s chief creative officer EMEA; Sama Al Naib, MD of digital innovation for EMEA at BCW; Sebastian Stępak, CEO Central and Eastern Europe at MSL; Tomoko Tagami, chief corporate communication officer at Shiseido; and Vanessa Ho Nikolovski, Weber Shandwick’s chief client and growth officer for Asia-Pacific. PR leaders on other juries include Andisa Ntsubane, managing executive of brand, marketing and communications for Vodacom Group Africa, and Weber Shandwick APAC head of corporate affairs Carolyn Devanayagam on the Creative B2B Lions jury, and Jerzy Holub, VP marketing and communications for Mastercard Central Europe on the Sustainable Development Goals Lions jury.

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND — Lars Haue-Pedersen has stepped down as MD of BCW Sports after 20 years. He will be succeeded by Jamie Corr, currently senior vice-president of sponsorship and consultancy at MKTG Sports and formerly sports lead at Hill & Knowlton. Haue-Pedersen founded specialist sports communications agency TSE Consulting in 2002; the agency was bought by BCW in 2015. He will remain as an advisor to the business.

LONDON — Headland has hired Mark Wainwright as its new digital director. Wainwright joins after eight years at Teneo, where he was a managing director working on digital and social media for clients including Instagram, McDonald’s, National Grid and Unilever.

LONDON — Tom Reynolds, a senior director in FTI Consulting’s strategic communications segment, is to return to Madano, a strategic communications agency within Hanover owner Avenir Global, as managing director for corporate and client growth. Reynolds previously worked at Madano between 2013 and 2019.

LONDON — Strategic communications consultancy Kreab Worldwide has made three senior appointments. Martyn Roper, former governor of the Cayman Islands, who worked for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office until last year, becomes a senior adviser, as does Michael Lea Rock, a former chief writer for prime ministers Gordon Brown and David Cameron who was also a speechwriter at the US Department of State. Former Daily Mail foreign editor Anthony Harwood has also joined Kreab as a director.

LONDON — Financial services strategic communications agency Vested has expanded its leadership team in London. Katie Spreadbury has been promoted to UK CEO, responsible for UK growth and delivery, and reporting to EMEA CEO Elspeth Rothwell. Spreadbury spent her earlier career at Four Communications, where she ran its financial services practice having joined through its acquisition of Consolidated PR. David Simpson joins the agency from Cognito in the newly-created role of MD of creative and marketing services. The moves follow the promotion of Danny Calogero to MD in late 2023.

LONDON — Boldspace has hired two senior creatives, with Adrian Lee joining to lead earned creative and Julian Abel heading up copy. Lee, who has nearly 30 years’ experience in PR and joins as senior creative, will report to head of consumer Lou Kelly, and support across consumer and corporate accounts including Direct Line, BetMGM, TGI Fridays, Lovehoney, and Moonpig. Lee started his career at Jackie Cooper PR before spending eight years in-house at Sky, rising to be director of publicity. He left Sky to become managing partner at Taylor Herring and was then director of publicity at Frank PR. Abel, who joins as senior creative copywriter, joins from digital experience agency Critical Mass and has also worked at Media Monks, Firewood Marketing and JWT, with clients including Google, Unilever and PayPal. Also joining the PR team at Boldspace are Shanil Nayee and Eli Shebson, who join as account directors from Harvard and Frank respectively, and Neasa Barnes, who joins as communications executive from social agency OneFifty.

LONDON — Arts, culture and entertainment PR agency Riot Communications has appointed two associate directors after a series of new client wins. Orla Houston-Jibo joins after two years as a communications, marketing and cultural programming consultant for clients in the arts, hospitality, lifestyle and heritage sectors, including Bloomsbury Publishing. She also worked as PR director at Phaidon and head of publicity and partnerships at Thames & Hudson. Julia Hallawell brings over 25 years of experience across film, theatre and arts publicity, joining from Kate Morley PR where she devised and delivered campaigns for West End theatre productions.

LONDON — Political and communications consultancy NorthPoint Strategy has hired former Labour Party general secretary Lord David Triesman and Tommy Sprague, former director of field to London mayor Sadiq Khan, as senior advisors. Triesman, who served as a minister in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments and as the first independent chair of the Football Association (FA), will advise NorthPoint’s client base on navigating the expected change in UK government later this year, while Sprague will provide clients with insight into the Labour Party.

LONDON — Hospitality technology specialist agency Abode Worldwide has made three new hires: Stewart Paterson has joined from Coverdale Barclay, where he worked with clients in the property and real estate sectors, as an account director overseeing client services; Madeleine Parkin has been appointed as account manager, having worked at short-term rental data company AirDNA; and Jenny Noad has taken on the role of agency coordinator, joining from B2B technology PR agency Publitek.

LONDON — B2B technology agency AD Communications has expanded its leadership team, with the appointment of Dan Chappell as managing director to spearhead the next phase of the company’s growth. Chappell will work with co-chairs Helen Tolino and Shireen Shurmer to drive development in new sectors, while they maintain their focus on the agency’s heritage markets, which include packaging, visual communications, print, and industrial/manufacturing. He most recently led global communications in-house for SaaS enterprise planning and analytics firm Board International. Previously he led Deconstructed, a start-up agency for tech scale-ups, and before this was an MD at Brands2Life.

LONDON — Built environment specialist agency Luminate has appointed Daniel Fryd as a director. Fryd will work with Luminate founder and MD Ally Kennedy to lead communications advice and support for clients in the development, infrastructure and energy sectors. He joins from Cavendish (formerly BECG) where he was a director and first worked with Kennedy, and has also worked at Chelgate and the UK government Department for Levelling Up Housing & Communities. He has worked with clients across the energy transmission, nuclear, solar, strategic land and property sectors, including National Grid, EDF-CGN, RES, Taylor Wimpey, Redrow and Persimmon Homes.