PR’s Revolving Door

Fleishman-Hillard has named Robert Dowling (left) GM and senior partner of the firm’s New York office, and the president of the Eastern region. Dowling joins the firm from Weber Shandwick, where he was president of New York operations. He also previously managed Weber’s Northern California operations and led the firm’s tech practice. He has two decades of experience in marcomms and publishing.

F-H also promoted Ron Guirguis from SVP and senior partner to deputy GM of the New York office. He’ll assist Dowling while continuing with his work as head of the New York corporate and public affairs groups. Guirguis joined the firm in Canada in 1999.

Navy Reserve Rear Admiral Vic Beck (left) has been named MD of the U.S. public affairs practice at Burson-Marsteller. Beck has been in the Navy Reserve for 25 years and serves as vice chief of information for the U.S. Navy. He’ll be based in Washington D.C. and Boston reporting to the chair of the U.S. PA practice, Nate Tibbits. Beck also has 20 years of public affairs experience working with companies and government organizations.

Krupp Kommunications (K2) has launched a parenting division led by Beth Feldman, former VP of comms at CBS and the founder of RoleMommy.com. The parenting division has already won new business like Zarbee’s and will be working with existing clients like Gaiam and the book Bonding Over Beauty by Erika Katz.

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Proof Integrated Communications has chosen Michael Bassik (left) as CEO. Bassik was previously B-M’s U.S. digital practice chair, a position he will continue to hold. Interim CEO Tony Telloni will become MD of brand integration and innovation in the consumer and brand marketing practice. He’ll also continue as the New York market leader. Proof is the marcomms and advertising agency formed from the Burson-Marsteller and PSBcreative advertising units.

Emily Buchanan has been named senior principal, chair of brand marketing and social engagement at Carmichael Lynch Spong. She was previously at MSLGroup where she was SVP, deputy practice director for the consumer marketing group. She’ll be based in Minneapolis.

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The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is looking for four staffers, two for the PR department and two for marketing.

The two openings on the PR side were once held by Keith Trivitt, the former associate director of PR for the group, and Diane Gomez, manager of PR. Trivitt has taken a position as director of marketing and communications at MediaWhiz. Gomez will be moving to the PRSA’s marketing department on May 25. All three positions in the organization’s marketing department are new, according to the PRSA.

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Mitt Romney has a new national security and foreign policy spokesperson: Richard Grenell, the director of comms and public diplomacy at the U.N. during the George W. Bush administration. Since then, he’s been a partner at Capitol Media Partners in Los Angeles. The firm says he will continue in that role while advising the Romney campaign.

Nadina Guglielmetti (right) has joined Kaplow as SVP of digital, social media, and consumer strategy. She’ll work with the MD and chief digital officer David Richeson to manage the KDrive practice group. She was previously the VP of digital strategies at Waggener Edstrom.

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Jim Wilkinson has joined PepsiCo as EVP of communications, leading the company’s comms team. He’ll report directly to company CEO Indra Nooyi. Wilkinson joins from Brunswick Group where he had been a managing partner since 2009. He also previously served as Chief of Staff for U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson.

Former Weber Shandwick SVP Reg Rowe has joined Idea Grove as an SVP. He had been an SVP at Weber for seven years before his position (and others) was cut in February, according to PRWeek.

At Weber Shandwick, they’ve named Brooke Shepard executive creative director, leading the creative services team in Seattle. The position includes management of the video production and graphics teams as well as leading the strategy behind digital efforts. Shepard has worked with the firm’s technology and consumer teams for 15 years.

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The Hispanic Public Relations Association has named its first national board of directors. Among those on the board are Oralia Michel, president of Omagen, who will serve as president of the board; Melissa Smith, EVP at RLPR who’s an at-large board member; and Lourdes Rodriguez, an account supervisor at VPE Public Relations who will serve as VP of programs. HPRA was founded in 1984 in Los Angeles. [via]

Sandra Fine (left) has been promoted to VP at rbb Public Relations. She joined the firm in 2005 as a senior account executive.

MSLGroup has announced a number of international appointments. Leonardo Sforza has been named MD in Brussels. He was previously head of research and EU affairs at Aon Hewitt. Richard Hayhurst has been named MD of the new healthcare practice in the MSL London office. He was previously the U.K. MD of Schwartz Communications, which was acquired in September 2011. And Adrian Rosenthal has joined MSLGroup in Germany as head of social media and digital. He was previously with Ketchum Pleon.

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Brunswick Group has two new senior execs. Robert Moran joins as a partner in the Washington D.C. office building the firm’s research and insights group here in the Americas. He’ll be working with Graeme Trayner and Phil Riggins, partners in London. Moran was previously the president of U.S. operations at Edelman’s StrategyOne research group. Brunswick has also added Samantha Lewis as a partner in the New York office. She was previously the chair of the U.S. brand marketing practice at Burson-Marsteller and the interim CEO of PivotRed, B-M’s brand and reputation consultancy.

GolinHarris has added three members to its digital staff. Brian Snyder (left) joins as a digital director based in Chicago. He comes to GH from Whirlpool where he was head of direct sales and e-commerce in the consumer packaged goods area. Ian Campbell joins GH’s connector community as executive director based in NYC. He was previously the director of creative at the National Football League. And Mark Bonham joins as a member of the strategist community in San Francisco. He was previously the MD of InterneXperts, a Web marketing company.

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Twitter has a new VP of communications: Gabriel Stricker, who comes to the the job after serving as Google’s director of comms and public affairs for more than five years.

Tweeting from a new Twitter account (and poking fun at his own resemblance to the actor Stanley Tucci), Stricker wrote, “I’m thrilled to be joining Twitter — and thankful for my time at Google. Both are more than just companies. They’re movements.” The New York Daily News quotes Michael Arrington, now of Uncrunched, who says that Stricker’s seeming lack of tweets would have made him a “nonstarter” in his eyes.

Just last month, it was reported that Twitter had hired the executive search firm Russell Reynolds to help find a new comms VP. Twitter’s previous comms VP, Sean Garrett, left the company in November 2011 after joining in February 2010. Karen Wickre has been serving in the role on an interim basis.

At Google, Stricker lead comms for Search tools like Google Maps and Google News. We spoke with Stricker back in 2010. You can read about that here.

Michael Frohlich has been named MD of Ogilvy PR U.K. He will continue as the regional consumer marketing head with the added day-to-day responsibility for the U.K. office. He’ll also sit on the firm’s U.K. board. Frohlich joined the firm in January 2012 from Bell Pottinger Group. [via]

Jeff Smokler has joined IMRE as SVP of the healthcare practice. He was previously SVP of healthcare public affairs at Weber Shandwick and once served as executive director of strategic comms of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

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