 Christie Bishop |
Edelman has appointed Christie Bishop head of brand for Southern California. Bishop joins Edelman from Spark44, a joint venture marketing partner to Jaguar Land Rover, where she was executive strategy director and general manager of North America. She also hosts the Commercial Grade podcast, which offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on the production of creative campaigns. “Christie’s appointment at Edelman is a clear indication of the opportunity that exists for the firm in the integrated brand marketing space across Southern California,” said Will Collie, general manager of Edelman’s Southern California business. “Her extensive experience will bring a new perspective to our work and be integral to boosting our ability to deliver successful and impactful programming for all of our clients.”
 Leslie Ankney |
Ditto has brought on crypto journalist Leslie Ankney as an associate vice president, based in the agency’s San Francisco office. Ankney comes to Ditto from Forbes, where she was a contributor and analyst. Previously, she wrote for the crypto news site NullTX/The Merkle and founded UpScale International, a digital marketing firm for crypto projects. In her new position, Ankney will help crypto projects communicate more effectively and work to educate journalists so that they can better tell compelling stories that get the tech right. Ditto has worked with a wide range of projects that focus on such areas as blockchain solutions, crypto finance, and digital assets.
 Sean O'Leary |
Susan Davis International has named Sean O’Leary as a vice president. O’Leary joins SDI from the Merritt Group, where he served as director, leading a practice for technology companies focused on working with federal, state and local governments, as well as the Department of Defense. He has also worked as spokesperson and communications director for the Newspaper Association of America and global communications manager for Metalogix Software. “Sean’s addition will allow SDI to further expand our impressive client roster, especially with technology companies and associations,” said SDI chairman Susan Davis.
Actum has hired Cecelia Prewett, who was president of DC Public Affairs at SKDK during a nearly 13-year run, as senior managing director in its Washington office.
Franz Paasche, who was most recently EVP for public affairs and communications at Columbia University, will join Verizon as EVP, corporate affairs, effective Nov. 10.
Horizon Family Brands, which includes Horizon Organic and Wallaby Organic yogurt, hires Andrew Springate as CMO... Wake Tech, a Raleigh, NC community college that serves over 70000 adults annually, brings on Lisa Marie Ferrell, who previously led North America communications at Lenovo, as VP of communications and marketing... Golin brings on executive creative director Meg Farquhar in Chicago, and EVPs of strategy Tom Howells (Western Region) and Martin Coomber (New York).
Hotwire Global appoints Burson global chief digital & intelligence officer Grant Toups as global CEO, effective in January.
Bader Rutter, which works with clients in the agriculture, food, beverage and pet care sectors, appoints Demar Anderson as CMO... Acceleration Community of Companies appoints Michael Moschella to lead its new insights division, ACC Intelligence... Luminate, a London-based shop focused on infrastructure and energy sectors, hires Osman Dervish as director—head of development... The Alpine Group promotes Alison Graab to principal from SVP.
