Claudia Patton

Edelman has appointed Claudia Patton chief talent officer, a position that also comes with a seat on the firm’s 14-person executive committee. Patton has 30 years of PR experience and was previously the president of Edelman’s Southeast region. She joined the firm in 2002 when her business, The Headline Group, was acquired. According to the press release announcing Patton’s new role, Edelman has added 500 new positions in the past year and, for the fiscal year ending June 30, experienced an 18 percent increase in global revenues.

Burson-Marsteller has added Matt Miller as a senior advisor to the firm’s global strategy group, which brings together pros with different areas of expertise to helps clients across the spectrum of B-M practices. Miller served as a senior advisor during the Clinton administration in the White House Office of Management and Budget. Now, he is a contributor on MSNBC and CNBC, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, host of a public radio program “Left, Right & Center,” and a weekly columnist for The Washington Post.

BP America has announced that former Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell has been appointed the head of both internal and external comms for the oil company. The company continues to be investigated in the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill and is pursuing further drilling operations here in the U.S. [via Politico]

International network PR Boutiques International has added five firms to its list of members: San Francisco-based consumer and lifestyle firm Arieff Communications; corporate branding and advertising agency Russ Consulting in Kuala Lumpur; B2B and B2C firm Buman Media in Moscow; corporate, consumer, healthcare, and financial firm Iris PR in Dubai; and Munich-based Huss PR Consult, which specializes in work for media, management consultancies, and IT companies