 |
| Gary Holmes |
Mower brings on Gary Holmes as vice president, director of public relations and public affairs. Holmes joins Mower from the New York State Department of Health, where he served as assistant commissioner, public affairs. He managed the department’s daily press response at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, he was director of communications at the New York State Department of Transportation and worked in broadcast journalism as news director at Time Warner Cable News Albany/Hudson Valley. “Gary is highly regarded in the corridors of state government, industry and the press, and his experience on the ground in Albany adds an important dimension to the scope of knowledge we bring to our advocacy work for clients in both the nonprofit and profit sectors,” said Mower president and COO Stephanie Crockett.
 |
| Bill Hankes |
Forbes hires Bill Hankes as chief communications officer. Hankes is the founder of Sqoop, a news discovery service. Before founding Sqoop, he was director of Bing Public Relations at Microsoft and vice president of corporate communications for RealNetworks. Reporting to Forbes CEO Mike Federle, he will collaborate with the editorial, human resources, marketing, product, sales and technology teams to ensure all external and internal messaging aligns with the Forbes brand strategy and mission. “Hankes embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and journalistic point-of-view that Forbes was founded upon and will leverage his strong communications experience to develop and drive our corporate, brand, product and internal communications,” said Federle.
 |
| Erin Kurtz |
Telecom company Frontier Communications names Erin Kurtz, chief communications officer. Kurtz most recently served as senior vice president, communications at XPO Logistics. She built and led an integrated communications strategy across public relations, reputation management, digital and social media, employee communications, brand marketing and government affairs. She previously co-founded marketing and communications agency Hunt & Gather, and held senior communications roles at Joele Frank, AOL and Thomson Reuters. “Erin is a dynamic and insightful communications executive with important experience driving culture change and building brands for the benefit of all stakeholders,” said Frontier president and CEO Nick Jeffery.
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.
