LONDON — Microsoft has named Nicola Taylor its PR director for the UK , following an extensive internal and external search launched last year.

Taylor will lead Microsoft’s in-house PR team in the UK, as well as its agency partnerships across the entire UK business. This includes consumer, B2B and technical PR, and corporate communications. Microsoft also named its interim head of UK PR Ali Perkins as the region's director of privacy and social business strategy, part of the marketing team.

The UK PR director post has been open since last year when Microsoft reshuffled its regional comms leadership. At the time, its EMEA PR head, Heather Knox, returned to the US to helm comms for Microsoft Office. She was succeeded by then UK PR head Tom Pilla and Perkins took over the role in the interim.

Both Taylor and Perkins are long-time Microsoft staffers. Taylor has been with Microsoft since 2008 working on corporate PR efforts and Perkins has been with the company for seven years.