Herbalife, the weight loss and nutrition company facing Justice Dept. scrutiny and ongoing attacks from a prominent hedge fund, has bolstered its corporate affairs operation, including the addition of a new global communications exec.

megan jordanMegan Jordan, former VP of corporate communications for Southern California Edison, has moved to Herbalife as senior VP of global corporate communications.

Current VP Julian Cacchioli continues in the same title but adds responsibility for coordinating global public policy strategy and CSR. Longtime SVP/comms. Barbara Henderson stepped down from that role in August 2014.

Jordan is a former senior VP at MSLGroup, Cohn & Wolfe and Zeno Group. She also directed PA and comms. for Kaiser Permanente.

On the PA front, Ric Hobby, a 27-year Herbalife veteran, was elevated to run global government relations. Randall Popelka, a former US Dept. of Commerce staffer who led federal affairs for pawn shop chain Cash America, joins Herbalife in Washington as VP of government and industry affairs.

The company in January added Weber Shandwick alum Marcus Reese in a new post overseeing state and local government affairs.

Herbalife in March won dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit alleging, as the activist investor Bill Ackman has, that the company is a pyramid scheme. That followed a $15M settlement by the company last year in a class-action suit by distributors who made a similar allegation.