NEW YORK—Edelman has appointed Lex Suvanto as managing director of Edelman Financial. Suvanto, who most recently served as managing director at corporate and financial specialist Abernathy MacGregor, will focus on building out the firm’s special situations capability in the New York and US markets, and will play a key role across a growing financial communications practice.

He will be based in the firm’s New York office and report to Russell Dubner, president, Edelman, New York. He brings expertise in managing complex communications challenges, including CEO transitions and board advisory, mergers and acquisition, initial public offerings, litigation, restructuring and strategic investor relations.

“Financial communications is about a lot more than just the numbers—from multi-geography regulatory hurdles to employee engagement to the increasing importance of digital and social—and clients need a partner that can help manage this complexity,” says Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman.

Prior to almost a decade at Abernathy MacGregor, Suvanto served in various client service, strategy and brand-building positions within Havas in the UK and France, and previously worked at Hearst Magazines helping to build new business enterprises.