Paul Taaffe, who served eight years at the helm of Hill & Knowlton, is taking over for Peter Chadlington, 72, as CEO of Huntsworth.
Since 2012, the 20-year veteran of the WPP unit was director of communications at $7B e-commerce company Groupon.
Derek Mapp, Huntsworth chairman, said Taaffe has the extensive knowledge of PR, digital communications and e-commerce needed to make an immediate contribution of the British PR conglomerate.
Taaffe began his communications career in 1983 as corporate relations manager at Unilever.
He moved to Reginald Watts Assocs. and Weber Shandwick before joining H&K.
Taaffe will formally take command in April and use the intervening months to meet with Huntsworth executives and review its Grayling, Huntsworth Health, Red and Citigate properties.
Chadlington will become a senior advisor when Taaffe arrives and develop business by cultivating contacts in Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Huntsworth's No. 2 executive Sally Withey will step down from her COO and finance director slots.
She has been seriously ill and on leave since June.
DJE Holdings, parent of Edelman and Zeno, launches RUTH as an independent shop named after Ruth Edelman, mental health advocate, wife and longtime business partner of Dan Edelman.
New York City PR firms make up the largest slice of O'Dwyer's 147 firm overall ranking with 33 of 40 in the New York/New Jersey area either calling Manhattan their home or having a presence there.
Subject Matter+Kivvit, which joined forces in May, has rebranded as Avoq, an integrated shop with more than 200 professionals in Washington, New York, Asbury Park (NJ), Miami and Chicago.
While PR pros stationed at in-house comms. teams and those working for agencies share many of the same objectives, they also have markedly different top priorities, according to a recent report.
Edelman is cutting 240 employees or about four percent of its workforce to cope with the cooling down of the PR sector, according to a memo from CEO Richard Edelman.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.