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| Jeff Astie |
APCO Worldwide has brought on Jeff Astle as managing director, Shanghai. Astle comes to APCO from the China-Britain Business Council, where he mostly recently served as managing director, China. At CBBC, Astle led teams assisting UK businesses and stakeholders to enter and grow in the China market, as wall as managing relations with the Chinese and British governments. He has lived and worked in China for 10 years and has worked in the Asia-Pacific region for 18 years. Before that, he held several roles in the media industry, which included serving as launch managing director for UK digital radio network Digital One. In addition to its Shanghai office, APCO’s Greater China division includes offices in Beijing and Hong Kong.
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| Charlene Wheeless |
The Arthur W. Page Society has elected Charlene Wheeless, principal vice president of global corporate affairs at Bechtel Corporation, as the next chair of the Page Board of Trustees. Her term will begin at the start of 2020. Wheeless has been a member of Page since 2012 and has served as a trustee since 2017, most recently serving as chair of the 2019 Page Annual Conference in Boston. While at Bechtel, Wheeless and her team have ramped up the company’s social media networks. Before joining Bechtel in 2009, she was vice president of communications for the intelligence and information systems business unit of Raytheon Company. She has also held positions at American Management Systems and DynCorp. “We will continue to build Page into a worldwide resource for helping CCOs be the leaders their enterprises need them to be,” Wheeless said.
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| Joel Rowe |
Cooksey Communications has promoted Joel Rowe to creative director at the firm. Rowe joined Cooksey in May 2018 as a senior designer after working as a graphic designer for a range of companies in the real estate, technology, travel and retail markets. At Cooksey, he has worked with such clients as Hillwood, Frisco Station, Bell Fort Worth Alliance Air Show, City of Plano and GRS Consulting. In his new role, Rowe will lead Cooksey’s creative department. Cooksey specializes in issues-related communications for government/economic development, transportation, water, energy and education clients, and strategic communications for professional services, real estate/development, retail/hospitality/consumer and nonprofit clients.
Ruder Finn hires Brent Mullins as SVP, talent and partnerships. Mullins joins the agency from 160over90, where he was VP, entertainment marketing... Allison Worldwide names Katie Huang Shin global president, technology, effective Nov. 14... Vasion, which provides serverless printing and AI-enabled automation, appoints Cindy White as CMO. 
Mod Op brings on John Powers and Alan Kipust as part of its Executive in Residence program, which already includes former Dun & Bradstreet chief data officer Monica Richter... Takeda Pharmaceuticals hires James-Denton Wyllie as head of R&D and external innovation communications... Veeam Software, which specializes in data resilience solutions, appoints Allison Cerra as CMO.
The Dallas Mavericks bring on Gina Miller as chief communications officer, a newly created role. She was previously with Major League Soccer team FC Dallas... Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization that advances arts advocacy, names Jamey Lundblad as CMO... Ambac Financial Group, an insurance holding company, names Karen Beyer managing director, head of investor relations.
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.
