Weber Shandwick has appointed Stewart Argo as an associate director in its Edinburgh office.

Stewart has more than 18 years' comms experience, joining the agency from the City of Edinburgh Council. During six years with the Council, Stewart created its corporate social media presence and increased its proactive output, while managing a series of challenging issues, including the Edinburgh tram project.

As a senior member of Weber Shandwick’s Edinburgh team, reporting to office head Harry Hussain, Stewart will be responsible for a portfolio of clients and new business generation. He will focus on several major City and Scotland-wide projects with complex multi-stakeholder PR requirements. He will also work alongside digital strategist Craig McGill on the agency's digital offer.

Stewart began his career with BBC Radio Scotland in Shetland, taking his first PR post with NHS Grampian, working on a variety of health promotion and awareness campaigns. He delivered PR for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, before being promoted to PR Manager with responsibility for national media activity and change programme communications.

Stewart said: "I’ve been impressed by Weber Shandwick's growth in Scotland over the past year, and I’m looking forward to helping them develop plans for further growth. The agency has amassed considerable experience in advising on complex projects within Edinburgh, and I’ll be using my own experience with the Council to help the business develop this offering."

Moray Macdonald, MD of Weber Shandwick Scotland said: "Stewart will play a key part in maintaining our growth strategy which has seen income increase by 15% this year. He’ll be a strong addition to the team."

Threepipe has expanded its team with the appointment of an in-house designer, Alex House, and Simon Ross as digital account director.

Alex (pictured), who joins from Splash Creative where he was lead designer, will oversee the agency's creative projects.

He said: "The opportunity to develop and drive the in-house creative offering that Threepipe has to offer is an incredibly exciting one and I look forward to the journey ahead."

Jim Hawker, Threepipe co-founder, said: "Alex’s appointment means we can offer a more integrated proposition than ever before. Appointments such as this, alongside our recent merger, mean we can offer an all-encompassing approach to briefs that covers PR, digital marketing and all design aspects."

Also joining the Threepipe team is Simon Ross who will be responsible for media planning and buying for the agency's clients including Reiss, Ted Baker and Royal British Legion. He previously worked at Ladbrokes, Google and iCrossing.

Farhad Koodoruth, Threepipe co-founder, said: "Simon shares our belief in using data to drive insight and results and brings a wealth of experience to the team."

Simon said: "The team has made me feel really welcome here, and this is a reflection of the great people that are working in the business. It is a great time to be here; the merger is only seven months old and the potential to build something truly unique in the marketplace is what makes being part of the Threepipe team really exciting."

The CIPR is partnering with National Citizen Service, a Government supported programme for 16 and 17-year-olds, to increase understanding about PR.

The partnership forms part of a wider education outreach programme undertaken by the CIPR following research published earlier in the year which found that young people lack the information and support needed to make an informed choice about public relations as a career.

The CIPR will now work with several partners, including NCS, to engage with students across the UK and teach them about the public relations profession.

Sukhjit Singh Grewal, CIPR director of professional development and membership, said: "We are delighted to be working with NCS to reach out to young adults and teach them about public relations. We hope that by engaging with students from an early age we can help them to better understand what public relations is and what it can achieve, and also increase the number of students who hope to enter the profession in the future."

Nick Hurd, MP, said: "NCS is now being recognised by universities and employers as a credible example of individuals wanting to develop their characters and skill sets in order to get their adult life off on the right footing."

Retail packaging manufacturer TRM has appointed Pelican to spearhead a major brand development and marketing communications campaign.

Pelican's dedicated packaging team has been briefed to help the corrugated packaging specialist drive sales in the food, drink and personal care industries.

The agency will support TRM by raising awareness of the brand’s key messages within with a combination brand development work, media relations, research projects and digital activities. The campaign’s overall aim is to increase sales and awareness of TRM’s expertise services and products.

The brief comes ahead of a £3 million investment in specialist printing equipment due to come on-line this autumn at the company’s Lancashire factory.

TRM produces corrugated cases and retail-ready packs for products ranging from premium spirits to bags of potatoes for brand owners and retailers including Tesco.

Mike Giles, TRM marketing director, said: “TRM is now in a position to move forward and take a bigger slice of the market; investment in new equipment, combined with our technical expertise, will give us the ability to provide quality and value that few can match.

"We chose Pelican because they have substantial experience of the packaging industry, and a creative side that will help TRM communicate its offer."

Pelican MD Michael Bennett said: "TRM is a great addition to our growing portfolio of packaging clients and continues to underline the leading expertise of our packaging team."

B Public Relations has been appointed to handle the PR and social media for Udo’s Choice.

The account will be headed up by B Public Relations' beauty director Margo Colombana and MD Sally-Anne Stevens.

They will report to Udo's Choice marketing director David Gunning and Ben Butler, commercial director.

Udo's Choice Ultimate Oil Blend is an organic blend of seed oils that delivers a balanced 2:1:1 ratio of omega 3, 6 and 9. The blend is known for its beauty benefits providing cells with nutrients needed for glowing skin, healthy hair and strong nails.

The Ultimate Oil Blend was developed by Udo Erasmus, a pioneer in methods for producing unrefined oils and for promoting the importance of essential fatty acids derived from organic seeds.

Celebrity hair and make up artists Michael Ashton and Jemma Kidd are expert ambassadors, and the brand counts Elle Macpherson, Sophie Dahl, Yasmin Le Bon, fashion designer Alice Temperley as fans.

Octopus Group has been called in by Orange to support its London-based group press office following a competitive pitch.

The group press office manages all external communications for Orange and is tasked with driving the operator's story, demonstrating customer value and planning its presence at the annual Mobile World Congress.

Octopus Group has also been briefed to proactively communicate Orange Group news to media, industry analysts and other key stakeholders, as well as ongoing reputation management.

Vanessa Clarke, director of external communications, Orange group press office, said: "Orange is now present in 32 countries and developments like convergence and 4G are opening the door to a new era of communication services that people will come to associate with operators.

"Our Group portfolio is hugely diverse, and we’re constantly expanding the business into new areas ranging from mobile money and cloud services to smart cities and Big Data. We’re delighted to be working with Octopus Group to highlight the innovation that Orange is delivering all over the world."

Jon Lonsdale, Octopus Group MD, said: "In an industry where many operators have stood still in recent years, Orange has continued to innovate, introducing a host of cutting-edge services across Europe, Africa and beyond. We look forward to working with Orange to communicate these stories to media, industry analysts and other key influencers."

Rebecca O'Neill has joined the Fitch Group as head of communications for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

She was most recently EMEA communications director for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), the global trade association for the OTC derivatives market.

Based in London, Rebecca will report to Daniel Noonan, global head of communications.

Prior to joining ISDA in March 2010, Rebecca was a director of corporate communications at Credit Suisse, serving as deputy to the head of EMEA communications and managing external and internal communications for the fixed income department and the global markets solutions group, which incorporated all EMEA capital markets businesses. Rebecca joined Credit Suisse in 2000 from Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. Rebecca began her career at Burson-Marsteller in Sydney, Australia.

Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries, is comprised of Fitch Ratings, Fitch Solutions and Fitch Learning. Headquartered in New York and London, Fitch Group is jointly owned by Paris based Fimalac, S.A. and New York based Hearst Corporation.

Rebecca can be reached on +44 (0) 203 530 1697 and rebecca.oneill@fitchratings.com.

Gong Communications has been selected to provide corporate communications services to law firm MJ Hudson.

The contract is effective immediately with initial activity mainly focused on developing awareness of MJ Hudson as an evolutionary sector specific international boutique firm, focused on asset management.

“MJ Hudson operates an innovative and client-centric business structure with some exciting news in the pipeline that will cement its place as an industry game-changer – exactly the kind of bold and dynamic client we thrive on here at Gong,” explained Gong’s MD, Narda Shirley.

"We have reached a key milestone in our growth and expansion and need an agency experienced in the alternative asset management space that can help us punch above our weight in terms of market visibilit," added Eamon Devlin, partner at MJ Hudson added. "Gong is also a good fit for us culturally as another international boutique.”

Simon Kutner has joined Bupa as interim head of media and corporate communications.

He is responsible for group-level media relations, covering financial calendar, M&A, annual report & accounts, CEO and exec reputation management and media contact programme, and issues management.

Simon joins Bupa from WorldPay, a financial technology company specialising in payment processing around the globe, where he was head of communications.

Prior to this, Simon spent seven years at RSA Insurance Group doing a number of roles across the company, most recently as head of external communications, UK & Western Europe. He has also held roles at Penrose Financial and retail stockbroker, The Share Centre.

Simon can be reached at simon.kutner@bupa.com.

The Brunswick Group and MAGNUS Investor Relations and Corporate Communication advised William Hill on the communications around its acquisition of Australian online betting business tomwaterhouse.com, announced on Friday, 9th August.

William Hill, one of the world’s leading betting companies, agreed to acquire 100 per cent of Tom Waterhouse N.T. Pty Limited, the Australian online betting business, for an upfront consideration of AUD $34m, together with the assumption of up to AUD $6m of balance sheet liabilities.

A potential additional earn-out on a sliding scale of up to AUD $70m is payable, subject to tomwaterhouse.com achieving incremental EBIT on a sliding scale between AUD $10m and AUD $30m in the year to 31 December 2015. This is William Hill’s second purchase in Australia following the successful acquisition of Sportingbet earlier in 2013.

The communications campaign was led by Brunswick through its William Hill team in London and associate partner Ilse Schache in Shanghai, with support in Australia from MAGNUS Director Dudley White in Sydney, Catherine Suen in Sydney and Rupert Dearden in Perth.

“This acquisition is an important step for William Hill in making Australia its second home market,” MAGNUS’s White said. “We are delighted to have worked with William Hill on this transaction.”

Andrew MacDougall, currently director of comms to the Canadian Prime Minister, is joining the London office of MSL as senior executive consultant.

Andrew will join the team in November, reporting to Jeremy Sice, CEO of MSLGROUP in UK. He will be a senior strategist and central player in the development of the company’s London operation.

Jeremy said: "Andrew’s unique combination of political communication, crisis communication, and digital media experience will bring a fresh perspective to our clients as they navigate an increasingly complex communications environment."

In his current role as director of communications to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Andrew provides communications advice, serves as lead spokesman for the Government of Canada, and develops communications plans for government policy announcements. He also leads the Prime Minister’s digital and social media teams. He will stay in his role until early September.

Anders Kempe, president EMEA, MSLGROUP, said: "Andrew will strengthen our offering with his extensive background in managing reputation in a truly international and multi-stakeholder context. He will bring his years of impressive experience and a fantastic network.

"He is an influential and trusted advisor who will draw upon his broad and unique experience and translate this into valued counsel for our clients. Andrew will be a great asset to the team, and we are excited to welcome him on board."

The Government’s Business Bank initiative, announced in last December’s Autumn Statement, has hired Patrick McGuinness and Laura Voyle to work on developing the organisation’s brand and profile.

They join the interim team working within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills that is gearing up to becoming fully operational in Autumn 2014.

Patrick worked at HSBC for over 20 years, latterly as head of group financial PR based in Hong Kong, and joins as head of communications and marketing. Laura, who joins the Business Bank team as deputy head of communications and marketing, was previously senior press officer at the Olympic Delivery Authority where she spent over six years working on the successful delivery of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Prior to that, she worked at Tesco plc in a range of communications roles in the Corporate and Legal Affairs Department.

They are joined by Scott Shearer who has worked at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for the last 5 years in a range of policy and communications roles.

The Business Bank initiative brings together £2.9 billion of existing Government schemes together with £1 billion of new capital to support a range of ways of encouraging greater diversity and supply of finance from the private sector to viable smaller businesses - particularly those with innovative ideas and faster growth potential.

Laura and Patrick can be reached at laura.voyle@bis.gsi.gov.uk and patrick.mcguiness@bis.gsi.gov.uk.

Simon Compton has joined the technology, media & telecoms team at Powerscourt.

Reporting to the Head of TMT Paul Durman, Simon’s appointment follows two other recent hires as the team continues to expand its offering and client coverage. Juliet Clarke, a former director of marketing and communications at Torex Retail Holdings, Head of TMT at M: Communications and senior TMT specialist at FTI, and Andy Parnis, a former telecoms equity analyst at UBS, Nomura and Lehman Brothers, both recently joined the team.

Simon has spent the past seven years working across the TMT sector at Tavistock Communications where he advised a number of companies through fund-raisings and corporate transactions, including IPOs, acquisitions and disposals. Recent client experience includes KCOM, Virgin Media, Bglobal and Vmoto.

Powerscourt’s recent client work in the sector has included advising Virgin Media on its $23 billion takeover by Liberty Global; KPN’s €5 billion capital raise and the proposed sale of E-Plus; financial comms for Micro Focus, the FTSE250 software group; and profile-raising for King, the fast-growing mobile games company, and Forward Internet Group, which has invested in companies such as uSwitch and Hailo.

Simon can be reached at simon.compton@powerscourt-group.com.

FWD has once again teamed up with Futureversity, the programme that provides training and activities for deprived 16-25 year-olds, to create a PR summer school this August.

The summer school allowed a group of youngsters from Tower Hamlets to spend time in a City PR environment and learn about communications skills, financial PR and working with the media.

The objective of Futureversity is to give youngsters from deprived backgrounds the opportunity to make a positive use of the school holidays, which can otherwise become a significant time for kids to drift into gangs, crime and drugs. When the programme was launched in Oldham in 2009 in partnership with local police, it saw youth crime cut by 68% in the area.

City institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Allen & Overy and Morgan Stanley have been hosting Futureversity summer schools for many years, but FWD is the first PR agency to join the programme.

“We are delighted for the third year in a row to be a part of the Futureversity scheme," said Michael Gaughan, chief executive of FWD Group. "The City is a hugely wealthy area located right next door to some very deprived inner-city areas, and we are keen that we should give some of the kids from these areas the opportunities to gain skills that could help them to find jobs and benefit from employment opportunities the City and PR both offer."

Redleaf Polhill has strengthened its property and private equity team with the appointment of Charlotte Palmer as a senior account director.

Charlotte, who joins from Knight Frank where she managed the PR for the Country Division, has worked both in-house and in agency. With extensive experience in real estate focused public relations, Charlotte will principally be active in delivering PR campaigns for new and existing clients operating in the residential property market.

“Our Property & Private Equity team has experienced considerable success, with a range of high calibre clients and some significant recent new business wins," explained Emma Kane, chief executive of Redleaf Polhill. "Charlotte’s appointment will help ensure our clients continue to receive a first-rate service and is a key hire as we look to grow the team further.”

“I am delighted to join the dynamic and ambitious team at Redleaf Polhill," added Charlotte. "I am very much looking forward to working with the fantastic clients they already represent, as well as pursuing new business opportunities for the fast-growing team.”

Redleaf Polhill has been appointed by NCI Vehicle Rescue, a leading provider of insurance services to the UK market, as its financial and trade PR adviser.

The appointment is with immediate effect and the account will be managed by Rebecca Sanders-Hewett, Lauren Franze, Dwight Burden, Sophie Roe and David Ison.

“NCI is a fast-growing, well-managed UK-based insurance services company, which has shown good financial performance for shareholders as well as a high quality service for its customers," explained Rebecca Sanders-Hewett, director at Redleaf Polhill.

"Redleaf Polhill is delighted to have been appointed by such an enterprising and innovative insurance company, operating in both the auto and pet insurance industry. We have a proven track record in handling ambitious management teams in the financial services market and look forward to working with NCI to communicate its growth story to both consumers and shareholders.”

Unity is paying a 'Golden Hello' of 5% of salary to anyone joining the company.

Gerry Hopkinson, Unity co-founder, said: "We are going to pay the commission to potential employees. They can share it with whomever referred them, if they come via a recommendation, or enjoy themselves as a joining bonus for making the decision to join one of the world’s most exciting, effective and energetic agencies. If our staff recommend people, they too will benefit.

"Of course we’ve got nothing against recruitment agencies! We’re happy for candidates to share their 5% with the agents, however, we’d rather people came direct as we think we've found a better way and one that motivates and rewards the people who really matter – our future and current staff."

Anyone interested can follow @hello_unity where new vacancies will be announced. The agency is also planning to host evenings at its Clerkenwell HQ to give prospective candidates a chance to learn more about the company.

In other Unity news, Davnet Doran (pictured) is being retained by the agency following her cover this year of co-founder Nik Done’s maternity leave.

Davnet said: "I had high expectations of strategic comms and creative excellence from the team at Unity and they have been surpassed. I’m hugely complimented to be asked to stay on and look forward to executing more award winning campaigns for our clients."

Davnet’s permanent director role starts in November and Nik returns from maternity leave early next month.

Paul Drury has joined the Unity team as an account director. Paul is ex-Idea Generation, has delivered campaigns in Moscow and Delhi for the British Council, and most recently masterminded UCL's Open City Docs Fest. Paul is working on Unity clients Hyundai and Baileys.

Ballantine's Finest Scotch whisky has called in M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment to support the launch of its new bottle design.

The team has developed a digital and PR campaign inspired by the bottle, which aims to reflect personality and life story of founder, George Ballantine, called 'Soundtrack of You'.

Using music as a platform to drive awareness amongst the target audience of 18-to-25-year-old men, the team has created a Facebook app on the Ballantine's Global Facebook page, which invites people to create and share a personal playlist of songs that tells the story of their lives through music.

The team has also brought DJ Pete Tong on board as the campaign's global ambassador, with additional local ambassadors, including Argentinian DJ duo Heatbeat, to target Ballantine’s key Spanish-speaking markets. The agency has created films with each of the ambassadors.

The account will be led by David Roberts, deputy MD at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment.

The National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs has appointed the NUS' Will Hoyles as head of PR and comms.

In his new role, Will has been briefed to help build the NACUE's brand and profile and will head up media relations, social media, internal comms and marketing.

Working as part of a team of two, with a view to expand the team in the coming months, he will communicate the association's message that enterprise and entrepreneurship education have the potential to improve employability for young people.

He will report to Antonia Rodgers, COO at the NACUE.

Will said: "Enterprise is a key part of the response to the challenges facing young people today and I'm excited to join NACUE at a time when we are expanding our reach in colleges and universities and speaking up for enterprising young people around the country."

Will was previously a press officer at National Union of Students, where he led on media relations, handling reputation management, as well as responding to the general election and tuition fees issues, and running a campaign against payday lender advertising.

Hill+Knowlton Strategies UK has bolstered its Energy + Industrials team with the appointment of Joanna Hoare as an account director.

She joins H+K from PPS Group where she was developing expert stakeholder and political engagement programmes and managing strategic communications campaigns. Joanna’s appointment takes effect immediately.

Joanna’s previous work has won an Issues and Crisis Management Award from PR Week and included energy sector clients of all types, from offshore wind farms to shale gas exploration projects. She has experience advising energy, property, retail and building services clients on stakeholder engagement and reputation management.

“I am pleased to add Joanna’s drive for success and enthusiasm for the sector to our team," explained Simon Whitehead, Head of Energy + Industrials at H+K. "In a sector that faces frequent communications challenges and constant change, Joanna’s skill-set and experience will be incredibly valuable to our clients.”

Joanna can be reached at joanna.hoare@hkstrategies.com.