LONDON — Elin de Zoete, the managing director of public affairs firm PLMR, is leaving the agency after 12 years to become a director of Bite Back 2030, an organisation backed by campaigning chef Jamie Oliver that focuses on tackling childhood obesity.

De Zoete will leave the firm at the end of March. She joined PLMR in 2008 and has worked with clients across education, health and social care, energy and food retail on media relations and public affairs campaigns.

PLMR founder and CEO Kevin Craig told PRovoke Media: “Elin has been brilliant for PLMR and whilst I am really sad that she is leaving, I totally support and understand her decision. Words are difficult to find to express my gratitude at having worked with her for this time and having had her play such an important role in the growth of the company. She is a role model for so many women in the communications industry and PLMR would not be where it is today had she not walked through the door of our offices.

“Her time at PLMR has taken her and us all over the UK and the world. I feel totally blessed and lucky to have worked with her, and learnt from her and there are many others here who feel the same. I am thrilled at the opportunity she has won for herself and will be watching her stellar career with interest in the coming months and years.”

Craig said De Zoete would leave a strong leadership team behind her, with former head of energy Tim Knight and head of education Ollie Lane as joint managing directors, and senior hires to come. In June last year, PLMR formed a strategic partnership with public affairs firm Park Street Partners, led by Gavin Devine.

De Zoete told PRovoke Media: “I’ve been so lucky to build my career at PLMR, alongside some brilliant clients and colleagues. I’m particularly grateful to Kevin for all of the amazing support he has given me now and over the last decade.

“Bite Back is building a youth-led movement with an ambitious goal to improve the food system and halve childhood obesity by 2030. It’s an issue I care deeply about and never more so than in the wake of Covid. Giving young people a voice in all of this feels refreshing but absolutely vital.”