Jeff Astie
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.

Charlene Wheeless
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.

Joel Rowe
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.