On the Move: APCO Ups Crowder, DoCanto

Courtney Crowder, Licy M. Do Canto

APCO Worldwide promotes Courtney Crowder to North America managing director and chair of advocacy and Licy M. Do Canto to North America head of market engagement. Before joining APCO in 2019, Crowder founded and operated his own consultancy, Crowder Consulting. He was previously legislative director and senior advisor to North Carolina governor Bev Perdue. In his new post, Crowder will set the vision for APCO’s advocacy offer and manage the agency’s Washington, D.C., and Raleigh offices. Do Canto has been with APCO since 2021, leading the D.C. office. Before that, he was executive VP and managing director in BCW’s public affairs and crisis practice, Do Canto will now spearhead APCO’s efforts across the region to generate wider awareness, foster deeper engagement and drive business growth for the firm through collaborations with corporations, governments, multilateral institutions, think tanks and public policy stakeholders.

Naomi Ballah, Dave Finn

Taylor ups Naomi Ballah and Dave Finn to SVP. Ballah spent the last two years at Taylor working to manage the Crown Royal brand. Prior to joining Taylor, she was director of public relations, social & influencer for the Matrix Professional haircare brand at L'Oréal. She previously was a group manager at Weber Shandwick. In his eight years at Taylor, Finn has led the account management of such brands as Guinness, IBM, Capital One, DraftKings and AIG. In addition to maintaining his client-facing account leadership position, he will be now be responsible for enterprise-wide client finance management, integration of client teams across all Taylor specialties, and agency talent allocation. “Naomi and Dave's promotions are a testament to their exceptional skills, profound industry knowledge, and unwavering commitment to our clients and Taylor's success,” said Taylor managing partner Maeve Hagen.

Peter Alexander

Fastly, which develops edge cloud platforms, brings on Peter Alexander as CMO, effective Aug. 1. Alexander joins Fastly from cyber security company Check Point Software Technologies, where he has been CMO for the past six years, driving the company’s go-to-market strategy, scaling demand generation, and elevating brand and reputation. He has also served as CMO at Harmonic, which provides video delivery infrastructure, and held a range of marketing and product management functions at Cisco. “Peter is an incredible strategic marketer with a proven track record of leading and building technology brands, and I’m excited to have him join our leadership team,” said Fastly CEO Todd Nightingale.