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| Alexis Chalopin |
Renault Group hires Alexis Chalopin as VP in charge of European affairs. Since 2023, Chalopin has served as industry and innovation advisor to the French Representation to the European Union and negotiator at the Council of the European Union. He was previously at Ernst & Young as a public policy evaluator. In his new post, Chalopin will be tasked with maintaining Renault’s dynamic of dialogue and cooperations with European authorities and stakeholders. “His knowledge of both the sector and European issues will be key to the development of our activities in Brussels,” said Renault Group director of public affairs Jean-André Barbosa.
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| Margaret Dawson |
SUSE, an open source technology company, appoints Margaret Dawson as CMO. Dawson joins SUSE from cloud-native observability platform Chronosphere, where she also served as CMO. She has led programs and teams at companies including Amazon, Microsoft, HP and Red Hat. At SUSE, Dawson will lead efforts to define and amplify the company’s narrative in the enterprise open source software market, working to ensure consistent messaging across brand, product, customer and community touchpoints. “With a proven track record of scaling technology brands and turning marketing into a true growth engine, I’m confident in Margaret’s expertise to accelerate our global leadership and capitalize on this moment,” said SUSE CEO DP van Leeuwen.
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| Denise Lauer |
Portillo’s, which operates 95 restaurants across 10 states, hires Denise Lauer as CMO, effective Sept. 22. Most recently, Lauer served as CMO at Marco’s Pizza, leading a team responsible for brand, media, digital, field marketing, customer experience, and product and channel innovation. Before that, she was CMO at Morton Salt and associate manager, communications at PepsiCo’s Quaker Foods & Snacks unit. “Denise’s proven track record of revitalizing customer experiences, growing sales and transactions, and building high-performing marketing teams will be instrumental as we continue to expand Portillo's reach and deepen our connection with guests across the country,” said Portillo’s president and CEO Michael Osanloo.
Clean Tomorrow, which promotes policies aimed at furthering the growth and innovation of clean energy, names Jordan Gallagher as chief operations officer... LaForce promotes Shauna Solum to EVP, a newly created, cross-agency role... Ubisoft, a gaming company, names Valentine Piedelievre-Eman as chief communications officer, effective Feb. 2. 
Jonathan Heppner, deputy communications director for New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, has joined SKDK as senior VP.
Joshua Baca, an alum of the American Chemistry Council and American Beverage Assn., joins FTI Consulting's PR segment.
Morgan & Morgan, a personal injury law firm, names Andrew Pagonis VP of marketing. Pagonis joins the firm from Google... Red Banyan, a firm specializing in reputation management, promotes James De Marco to director of strategic communications... ASC Advisors ups Keely Gispan to partner and promotes Max Rayden to managing director... Drumfire Public Affairs, a boutique D.C.-based public affairs firm celebrating its 10-year anniversary, promotes Maureen Vogel to senior director of digital media... Dreamday, a PR and affiliate performance firm, brings on Samara Cooper Hillman as VP.
Corporate PR pro Mayra Hernandez Bergman has signed on as a senior advisor at August, strategic communications shop.
