NEW YORK—Karen van Bergen has been named chief executive officer of Omnicom’s global public relations firm Porter Novelli. Van Bergen joined the agency in January of 2012 to run the New York office. She takes over from Michael Ramah, who has been leading the agency on an interim basis since the departure of former CEO Gary Stockman in June.

Prior to joining Porter Novelli, van Bergen was senior partner, senior vice president with Fleishman-Hillard, based in Amsterdam, where she spent nearly three years as the global leader for OneVoice, an integrated Omnicom offering that serves Royal Philips Electronics. Prior to OneVoice, van Bergen was regional director for the Netherlands and Central and Eastern Europe for Fleishman-Hillard.

Before Fleishman, van Bergen served two stints with McDonald’s totaling more than 13 years.  She was chief of staff, vice president of corporate affairs for McDonald’s Europe, part of a management team that introduced and executed a highly successful new European strategy. Earlier in her career, she was director of corporate affairs in Europe for the Outboard Marine Corporation.

Ramah will remain a member of van Bergen’s executive committee.