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| LaWanda Toney |
President Biden nominates National Parent Teacher Association director of strategic communications LaWanda Toney to serve as assistant secretary for the Department of Education’s office of communications and outreach. Toney has been with the National PTA for over 12 years, managing the organization’s communications team in the areas of web, social media, editorial, creative development and media relations. She previously managed marketing programs, planned special events and created communications campaigns for retailers, nonprofits, publishing, and advertising companies.
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| Casey Ramage |
Churchill Downs names Casey Ramage vice president of marketing and partnerships. Ramage most recently served as chief marketing officer at Champion Sports. She has also been vice president of marketing at EdjSports, and was previously at Churchill Downs as vice president, brand development and licensing. In her new role, Ramage will be responsible for establishing the brand strategy for Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby while leading the marketing and partnerships teams. “Casey brings a deep understanding of the Kentucky Derby brand and we are thrilled to welcome her back to Churchill Downs to lead these critical marketing and partnerships functions,” said Churchill Downs Racetrack president Mike Anderson. “She brings the ideal combination of experience, passion and emotional connection.”
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| Sara Varni |
Attentive hires Sara Varni as chief marketing officer. Varni joins the company from Twilio, where she spent the last four years as CMO, responsible for growing the community of developers and bringing the company into the enterprise market. Previously, she led go-to-market strategy and positioning at Salesforce for over 10 years in roles including SVP of product marketing for its leading sales platform, Sales Cloud. In her new post, Varni will head up Attentive’s strategic global marketing and communications, including brand marketing, growth and performance, partnership marketing, and product marketing.
Jamie Dowd, who was most recently president of the health practice in the Americas at Weber Shandwick, comes on board at Allison Worldwide as global president, health + wellness, effective June 22.
Burson is bringing on Hanover managing director, Middle East Jonty Summers as head of corporate affairs in Dubai at the end of June... Ridgepost Capital, which had over $45 billion in assets under management as of March 31, names Brian McKenna VP, investor relations, effective June 15... The Center for AI Safety appoints Rochelle Nadhiri as head of public engagement. 
Kieran Mahoney, who founded Mercury Public Affairs more than 27 years ago, has stepped down as CEO and assumed the executive chairman post.
FGS Global brings on Harry Florry as head of Singapore and Andrew Yeo as global policy partner Asia... ACORE CAPITAL, a commercial real estate debt investment manager, appoints Cynthia Holahan as CMO, a newly created role at the company... NVE Experience Agency, a global brand experience firm, hires Justin Biskin as SVP in its sports marketing practice. Biskin joins NVE from Nike.
Ipsos, a market research and polling company, appoints Marion Beyret as chief communications officer... TENEX.ai, an AI‑native, human‑led SOC (security operations center) appoints Richard Rogers as CMO... Arizona Athletics hires Carter Toole as chief communications officer and senior associate athletics director.
