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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.
FGS Global adds former Pfizer EVP and chief corporate affairs officer Sally Susman to its global executive board as an independent member, effective April 1... Codeword brings on Kim Baffi, who was previously Salesforce VP and creative director, as executive creative director... Amperity, an AI-powered customer data cloud, appoints Bridget Perry as CMO.
Alcoa has named Emily Olson, who has more than 20 years of experience working in capital-intensive industries in the Americas, Europe and Asia, EVP & chief external affairs officer, effective April 6.
Longacre Square Partners has named Humza Vanderman partner and head of its London outpost as the financial communications firm expands into Europe.
MOIA America, a Volkswagen Group of America subsidiary that develops and tests autonomous, all-electric ride-pooling vehicles, names Marcus Gamo head of U.S. communications... Continental Strategy brings on Francisco Petrirena as VP in its Miami office. Petrirena was previously chief of staff to former Miami city manager Art Noriega... MSQ Sport + Entertainment brings on Lauren Weil as EVP, Max Hirsch as VP of sponsorship, and Brooke Losee as VP.
Burson promotes EMEA COO Matt Buchanan to global chief social and Influence officer, a newly created role... Seedtag, a “global neuro-contextual advertising company,” brings on former Edelman SVP, corporate and public affairs Brendan McCarthy as chief marketing & communications officer... The Associated Press ups Lauren Easton to SVP and chief communications officer.
