 |
| Don Smialowicz |
DDC Public Affairs president and COO Don Smialowicz heads to HudsonLake, where he takes over the CEO position.
Smialowicz succeeds HudsonLake founder Cynthia Hudson, who will focus solely on her responsibilities as chair of HudsonLake's board of directors.
After joining DDC as vice president, human resources in 2005, Smialowicz was promoted to chief operating and talent officer in 2012 before becoming president and COO in 2019. He played a lead role in the company's M&A activity and its acquisition by The Omnicom Group in 2014. Before joining DDC, Smialowicz was with BCW's grassroots communications division where his focus was on human resource management and organizational development.
Hudson said that the agency "will benefit greatly from Don's experience leading and managing companies through accelerated growth, his people-first focus and his results-producing ethic."
Seven Letter hires Allie Raffa, who was most recently White House correspondent for NBC News, as a senior director... Points of Light, an organization founded by President George H.W. Bush that is dedicated to volunteer service, names Jeff Zanelli as CMO... Frontieras North America, an energy and environmental technology company, appoints Nora Shepard as VP of communications.
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.
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.
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.
