KPPR has been called in to handle the launch of SohoCreate, a new festival celebrating Soho as the most creative square mile in the world.

The event, which takes place from 4 to 6 June, will bring together the very best creatives to share their wisdoms, thoughts, experience and ideas, revealing what inspires and motivates them.

It will celebrate Soho as the capital of creative employment and a global destination for like-minded creative individuals, businesses and organisations.

SohoCreate is the brainchild of Westminster City Council and Tom Harvey, previously CEO of Northern Film and Media and a former CEO of the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Research commissioned by Westminster City Council and UKTI for Burns Owens Partnership reveals that nearly a quarter of Soho’s employment is in the creative sector and 20% of London’s creative jobs are located there, making Soho one of the most creative square miles in the world.

Creative people and companies in Soho have won 22 Oscars, 100 Cannes Awards, 50 yellow or black D&AD awards and 18 Brit Awards. And the number of creative jobs in Soho has grown by 25% since 2009, growing faster than creative jobs in London as a whole.

Tom said: "The next generation of creatives are not going to be inspired by GVA and turnover, they are going to be inspired by meeting, and talking with our great directors, writers, musicians, performers, designers and producers. SohoCreate is a festival about creativity and inspiration."

KPPR has been briefed to promote Soho as the central hub for creativity and entertainment; emphasise the importance of collaboration in the creative industries across generations; illustrate the craft of entertainment and provide media relations activity to raise its profile to consumers and corporations.

The account will be led by KPPR account director Sarah Stevens, reporting to Tom Harvey.

Luxury women’s fashion brand Temperley London has appointed Coralie Rogez as VP for global press.

Coralie will work as part of a team of five on global press activity for the brand. Current activity is focussed on Temperley London’s Winter 2014 fashion show, which is due to take place this Sunday.

She will report to Temperley London’s SVP of global press and marketing, Madeleine Macey.

Coralie said: "The brand is in full expansion at the moment, especially since the recent arrival of our CEO Ulrik Garde Due.

"I am very excited to have joined this quintessential British lifestyle brand at such an important time and to have relocated to this vibrant city. I am looking forward to working closely with international editors and helping grow Temperley London in all of our identified international markets.

"Alice has an extraordinary talent, and it is an honour for me to be part of her team.

Coralie was previously PR director for five years at Madrid-based luxury PR agency Replica Comunicacion. While there, she worked with various international brands including Bonpoint, Chaumet, Eres, Ferragamo, Jimmy Choo, Paule Ka and Robert Clergerie.

The former Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires business reporter Jessica Hodsgon has joined Consilium Strategic Communications as a consultant in the agency's healthcare team.

A journalist for almost two decades Jessica has also had stints working for the Observer, the Evening Standard and the Guardian. She has worked in London and the US covering sectors including healthcare, M&A, financial services, technology and media.

“Jessica’s journalism background will highly complement our multi-disciplinary team of strategic healthcare advisors," explained Mary-Jane Elliott, managing partner of Consilium Strategic Communications. "Jessica has spent more than 11 years in financial and healthcare journalism and has extensive experience of the modern 24 hour news environment, understanding of the sector’s innovations, complexities and issues from the point of view of a senior financial journalist, which will be a great asset to the team and our clients.”

“Consilium has already secured its position as a global leader in strategic healthcare communications advisory and I am delighted to be joining the team at such an exciting time," added Jessica commenting on her appointment. "The international healthcare industry is at a transformational point across many sub-sectors and I look forward to being a strong part of the company’s continued dominance of the sector.”

Jessica can be contacted on +44(0)20 7920 2346 and hodgson@consilium-comms.com.

Cartesian Capital, the UK equity investment specialist, has appointed Quill PR as its retained media relations consultancy to devise and manage an on-going PR programme targeting the UK's financial and investment press.

The team comprises managing director Fiona Harris, associate director Emma Wallis and account manager Mark Fleming-Williams.

Based in Edinburgh Cartesian Capital Partners LLP is an investment boutique offering professional and institutional investors a range of UK equity Funds.

Cartesian's investment team includes Andrew Kelly, who has has an actuarial background, and Jeremy Hall who was previously an accountant. Together they have over 30 years of portfolio management and investment experience.

“We expect investors to focus more towards domestic stocks in the medium term as the UK economy continues to recover and grow, and this trend is already driving increasing interest in Cartesian’s funds," explained Andrew Kelly, partner and investment manager at Cartesian Capital. "We have met with more companies in the past three months than in any previous quarter and confidence, especially among small and mid-caps, is high. Earnings growth will be critical this year and Cartesian’s long/short capability means that we can pick both the winners and the losers, and we are well-placed to cope with shifting markets.”

“We have been impressed by the knowledge and enthusiasm of the team at Cartesian," added Quill PR managing director Fiona Harris. "In a competitive industry, Cartesian differentiates itself with strong performance, its long/short approach and a rigorous investment process, and we are very excited to be working with them.”

Threepipe has hired three new additions to its B2B team following new client wins and the growth of existing clients.

Liam McLaughlin, Tom Briffit and Mimi Brown have joined as senior account manager, account manager and account executive respectively. They join a team that works across clients including Oracle, Ericsson, Satmetrix and MindLink Software.

“Our unique approach to developing story-led demand generation campaigns is resonating well in the market, where for too long PR agencies have relied on brand awareness metrics as the only measure of success," explained Phil Borge, associate director, who heads up Threepipe’s b2b team.

"We create account teams of experts across multiple disciplines including content creation, media relations, social media and pure digital marketing, which today’s b2b briefs increasingly require.”

The three can be reached at liam.mclaughlin@threepipe.co.uk, tom.briffit@threepipe.co.uk and mimi.brown@threepipe.co.uk.

Corinthia Hotel London has appointed former BBC and ITV broadcast journalist Orla O'Donovan as its PR manager.

Orla will work closely with the hotel group’s director of international PR, Fiona Harris, to manage Corinthia London’s PR strategy and team.

She joins Corinthia from the Confederation of British Industry, where she was corporate comms adviser, responsible for delivering media campaigns on business and the economy.

Before that, she spent a decade working in television and radio as a reporter, producer and presenter for the BBC and ITV at national and regional levels, including a stint producing BBC Breakfast.

Orla said: "Having a background in journalism will help me dig out the wealth of colourful stories hidden here in this beautiful hotel and in its multi-talented and diverse staff. And with my business knowledge, I’m looking forward to helping Corinthia Hotel London shine out as the most exciting among the many luxury hotels of London."

Matthew Dixon, Corinthia Hotel London general manager, said: "With her broadcast background, Orla brings something new to the mix. She joins us at a dynamic time, when Corinthia Hotel London, our acclaimed flagship, is breaking new ground and redefining luxury with a special offering unique among its peers. We’re delighted to have her on board."

Yelp, one of the world’s largest location-based services, has called in Dynamo PR to handle its UK PR in the run up to its 10th birthday celebrations later this year.

Dynamo, which won the account following a three-way pitch, will provide press office activity and contribute to creative campaigns for the San Francisco-based company in the run-up to a global advertising push for Yelp’s new tag line, "we know just the place".

Elliot Adams, senior European PR manager at Yelp, said: "Yelp exists to connect people with great local businesses, so we’re delighted to have connected with Dynamo to run our PR in the UK. Dynamo has already established a pedigree with Silicon Valley companies and pride themselves on being unboring, one of Yelp’s core values.”

Peter Bowles, Dynamo co-CEO, said: "Yelp is a phenomenal tool for discovering hidden gems on the UK high street. One of the members of our team has been a Yelp Elite member for three years and has discovered all sorts of amazing places across London. Our team has a very broad remit to work across promoting the Yelp offering to consumers and helping small businesses realise the value in managing their free profile on Yelp as a means of attracting further custom."

Yelp floated on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2012 and the company is currently worth more than $6 billion. In October 2012, Yelp acquired Qype to further strengthen the comprehensive database of user reviews across Europe.

Powerscourt advised entrepreneur Martin Dunphy (pictured) on media coverage around the sale of his 20% stake in Marlin Financial Group as part of a £295 million transaction announced on 10 February.

The Powerscourt team consisted of Justin Griffiths and Georgianna Vaughan.

The sale to Cabot Credit Management, a company majority-owned by Encore Capital Group, Inc., a US publicly listed speciality finance company, was made alongside majority shareholder Duke Street, which sold its 58% stake in Marlin as part of the transaction.

Marlin, a UK-based purchaser of non-performing consumer debt, began life in Martin Dunphy’s Wimbledon living room in 2002 and has been rated one of the UK’s 100 fastest growing companies by The Sunday Times. It generated sales growth of 55% per annum between 2009 and 2013.

Kazakhstan’s largest bank, Kazkommertsbank, has brought in Instinctif Partners (formerly known as College Hill Group) to support the bank's communications around its planned $465m acquisition of a controlling stake in BTA Bank.

The controlling stake is being acquired from the Astana based Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna.

Leonid Fink and Klavdiya Badieva are leading the Instinctif Partners team and report to KKB head of investor relations, Aliya Nursipatova, and director of public relations, Larissa Kokovintes.

The acquisition and subsequent merger of BTA Bank and KKB are expected to create the largest universal bank in the region. The acquisition will become a part of the ongoing consolidation of the banking sector in Kazakhstan.

The transaction is subject to shareholder approval and various other conditions as well as agreeing final merger terms.

The Instinctif Partners team also includes Galyna Kulachek and Tony Friend. The agency is providing strategic communications advice to the KKB management team and is working closely with the KKB in-house communication teams across all aspects of investor relations and media engagement. The media relations brief has a specific emphasis on educating domestic and international financial audiences about the proposed transaction.

Henry Columbine has been promoted by Redleaf Polhill to director of the property and private equity team, following a number of new business wins.

The appointment follows the recent hires of Charlotte Palmer, who joined from Knight Frank as a senior account director, and Roy Turner, who joined as a media relations manager.

Henry will lead the team as it continues to work with clients including Heron International, Patron Capital and Guggenheim Partners, and looks to expand through new business wins.

“I am exceptionally proud of the strong team that Henry has built," explained Emma Kane, Redleaf Polhill’s chief executive. "His hard work and the consistently excellent results he and his team deliver for clients have earned Redleaf Polhill a strong and growing reputation within the property sector. Having led the property and private equity team as associate director over the last financial year with great success, we are very pleased to promote him to director.”

“I have learnt a great deal since joining Redleaf Polhill at the start of my PR career in late 2007. The varied work I have done – including financial, corporate and consumer PR – and our broad mix of high calibre property clients have made the journey from account executive to director a very interesting one," added Henry. "I am grateful to Emma and the rest of the management team for the support and recognition they have given me along the way and look forward to continuing to work with them to grow the team.”

Henry can be reached at hc@redleafpolhill.com
and +44 (0) 20 7382 4747

SABMiller's global head of communications and reputation, Nigel Fairbrass, will leave the company in May after more than a decade with the business.

"Nigel has played a central role in building the excellent corporate reputation that SABMiller enjoys today," explained Catherine May, SABMiller's director of corporate affairs. "Nigel has also been a key member of the Corporate Affairs Leadership Council, providing specialist input to this policy setting group under the leadership of both Sue Clark, and more recently, myself."

Nigel also led communications campaigns for SABMiller's corporate M&A activities including the company's acquisition of Foster’s in Australia and the merger of Miller Brewing Company with Molson Coors in the USA.

Previous to SABMiller Nigel worked as a consultant with Tulchan from 2001 to 2003 and before that was an associate partner with Brunswick, which he joined in 1997.

Nigel starts a period of gardening leave from this week and can currently be reached at fairbrassn1@gmail.com.

Sermelo has appointed Laura Petty as a senior consultant to help the corporate affairs firm develop and deliver integrated campaigns.

Laura brings with her extensive experience in implementing corporate communication strategies for global clients. She joins Sermelo from Grayling where she had a particular focus on economic development and geopolitical issues.

A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, she achieved a Masters in International Peace Studies from Trinity College, Dublin prior to moving to London where she began her career in journalism.

Laura is also a member of the PRCA, and was elected to the UK PR Council in October 2013.

“In the last six months we have seen an increasing demand to develop cross border campaigns targeted at internal and external audiences and we are very pleased to welcome Laura to our growing, and increasingly international team,” explained Jonathan Jordan, senior partner and founder of Sermelo.

Laura can be reached at laura.petty@sermelo.com.

Abchurch Communications has secured the corporate PR and social media remit for Wellesley & Co, the UK peer-to-peer lending platform.

Wellesley has been operating as a property development finance company since mid 2013 and has processed over £200 million of loan applications made by borrowers since its inception. To date it has made £6.5 million worth of loans through its P2P platform.

The account will be run by Julian Bosdet, chief executive, Henry Harrison Topham, managing director, Jamie Hooper, account director, and account executives Alistair de Kare-Silver and Stephanie Watson.

“The Abchurch team is delighted to be working with Wellesley & Co to raise the profile of the Company following its recent launch and to communicate its story and unique offering to savers and to property developers," explained Julian Bosdet, chief executive of Abchurch. "Abchurch is pleased to be working in the rapidly growing peer-to-peer lending industry in a crucial stage of its development as it becomes regulated by the FCA in April.”

Poundland has hired Citigate Dewe Rogerson to handle communications on its planned London stock market float.

The project is being headed by Citigate’s Simon Rigby, Michael Berkeley and Lindsay Noton.

Poundland is the largest single price value general merchandise retailer in Europe. It operates over 500 stores in the UK and Ireland selling items at a single price point of £1 (Euro 1.49 in the 31 stores in Ireland under the Dealz brand). The company is 76% owned by private equity house Warburg Pincus with the rest of the shares owned by management. In the financial year ending in 2012 the company reported revenues of £641m growing to £880m in 2013. The underlying EBITDA grew from £31.1m in 2012 to £45.5m in 2013.

Splendid Communications has been handed an annual retainer by national cinema chain Showcase Cinemas, to run its press office following a six agency pitch.

The agency has been briefed to position the Showcase and Showcase Cinema de Lux brands as experts in UK cinema, targeting national, regional and trade media.

The account will be led by Splendid associate director Zoe Weeden.

Jon Dixon, Showcase marketing director, said: "Splendid’s reputation for delivering high quality media coverage for some of the UK’s biggest brands, as well as the passion they demonstrated for film, made their appointment an easy decision."

Splendid CEO Alec Samways said: "With a team passionate about the cinematic experience, we’re really excited to be working with Showcase Cinemas. A cinema’s role is increasingly evolving to be more than just the screening of films, and with the Showcase chain at the heart of communities across the UK, we can’t wait to get started on the year’s plans."

Ogilvy PR London has launched Ogilvy PR Sport and appointed OgilvyAction’s Jonathan McCallum to lead the new practice.

Ogilvy PR Sport will provide comms campaigns and marketing strategies for sports brands, and will work alongside Ogilvy PR London’s existing consumer, technology, sustainability and social practices.

Jonathan joined Ogilvy Group in 2005, where he was director of sponsorship for OgilvyAction and worked on global brand comms, with a focus on sport for Statoil, Motorola, Coral, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Barclays, Caterpillar, Sega and UPS.

Michael Frohlich, MD at Ogilvy PR London, said: "We are delighted to be launching Ogilvy PR Sport and to be welcoming Jonathan McCallum to Ogilvy PR London.

"This new practice boosts our capabilities and enables us to provide more holistic strategic advice to brands. As a standalone PR agency within one of the world’s marketing powerhouses we constantly look to integrate services and provide greater benefit to our clients.

"Through Ogilvy PR Sport we will deliver indepth understanding of the many facets of sports marketing and sponsorship to all our existing and new clients. This is a truly exciting move and we look forward to engaging brands and sports fans."

Jonathan said: "I am very excited to be joining Ogilvy PR London and bringing new insight and opportunities to its clients. Ogilvy PR Sport will unite brands and sports, allowing clients to effectively integrate sports properties within their communication programmes in a measurable and tangible way, by adding value to the fan experience.

"Put simply, making sports fans, fans of brands. Sport creates experiences that can unite, inspire, or even change people's lives and is therefore a powerful platform to use in PR."

Pets at Home has hired Brunswick to handle communications on its planned London stock market float.

The project is being handled by Brunswick's Tim Danaher, Justine McIlroy and Natalia Dyett.

Pets at Home is the UK's leading specialist retailer of pet food, pet-related products and pet accessories. The company also operates the UK's second largest small animal veterinary business by combined number of surgeries, both in its stores and at standalone locations, and is the leading operator of pet grooming services by number of in-store salons.

REACT Energy plc, the renewable energy developer and operator focusing on the production of clean energy in the UK and Ireland, has appointed Yellow Jersey PR as its financial PR advisor with immediate effect.

REACT, develops, builds, owns and operates renewable energy electricity and heat generation plants in the UK and Ireland and is listed on AIM. The Company is technology neutral and focused on delivering optimal returns for shareholders through the diversification of technology, development and jurisdictional risks using Biomass, Wind, Anaerobic Digestion and Solar renewable technologies – www.reactenergyplc.com.

“Having been recommended, we now are looking forward to working with management in a marketing-communications and financial PR role to publicise and promote this strong brand," commented Dominic Barretto, Yellow Jersey PR’s managing director. "Our first stage will focus on messaging and strategy, followed by building sustainable and credible press coverage around future corporate events to drive investor audiences and partners."

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants has appointed Headland to handle the launch of a new set of global management accounting principles, designed to help organisations make better decisions and manage risk.

The Principles are being developed by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the American Institute of CPAs. The two Institutes have launched an international consultation on the draft framework across their network of 177 countries. They address issues including budgeting, risk management and financial controls and aim to bring consistency to management accounting practices around the world.

Headland has been appointed by CIMA to raise awareness and secure endorsement of the Principles among the media and stakeholders. The initiative has already received the backing of prominent business leaders including Douglas Flint, chairman of HSBC, and Ian Powell, chairman and senior partner of PwC in the UK.

“The creation of a global framework of management accounting principles is an ambitious task," explained Neil Hedges, partner at Headland. "Our role will be to help encourage broad consultation on the proposed Principles over the next 90 days in advance of a launch of the agreed framework in September. There will be lots of direct communications and media relations activity over the coming months.”

“The development of the draft Principles represents one of the most important initiatives in the long histories of CIMA and the AICPA. Headland is working with us to communicate this importance and, ultimately, to drive adoption of the agreed Principles across the world.”

TORA, a digital Reputation Management and Search Engine Optimisation agency, has been launched by ex-financial PR and Fovea founder Pete Corbin and digital communications specialist Clair Marr.

The agency's mission is to help companies and individuals protect their reputation online by diluting diverse and damaging content on the internet, correcting false information and promoting the positive. TORA also provides SEO services and digital crisis response including the building of 'dark sites' - an offline preprepared website that can be activated swiftly if required.

TORA works in tandem with financial and corporate PR agencies as well as media and litigation lawyers, risk managers, publicists and agents. The company already claims a number of blue chip organisations, corporate brands, celebrities and politicians amongst its client base as well as a number of high profile foreign and UK individuals and families.

Pete commented: “We have been providing digital Reputation Management and Search Engine Optimisation support to clients under the Fovea Communications brand for some time now, but it was important to separate the offering out from our other core skills because it is such a niche and growing area of corporate communications that is highly specialised.”

He went on to say: “We work purely in the corporate space and understand how easy it is for a reputation to be damaged, in a matter of seconds sometimes, by unwarranted and incorrect news or comment on the internet – either on a news website, through Social Media or from a blog. The work we do counters the actions of any malicious parties who have used the online space as a means to bring about significant reputational damage to our clients and our aim is to help dilute this negative material and drive it further down the search page ranks to provide a more balanced reputation. We don’t use off the shelf products or gimmicks because every client’s situation is unique, we provide bespoke, tailored solutions.”

More information is available at www.theonlinereputation.co.uk/.