In-house corporate affairs news, April 2021

Catriona Woolner-Winders has been appointed Executive Director of Communications at Selfridges, having previously been a Founding Partner at Paternoster Communications. Catriona started her new role in February and reports directly to Andrew Keith, Selfridge’s Managing Director. Her responsibilities range from communications and corporate affairs to influencer relations and sustainability.

Visa has hired Claire Hardy as Senior Communications Director for continental Europe. Claire joins from Portland, where she was Director of Corporate Communications. Claire will manage Visa’s internal and external communications programme across 34 countries and provide strategic counsel to the European senior leadership team.

Peter Barron, former Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for EMEA at Google, has been hired as Global Head of Communications at Stripe, an online payment processing company.  Peter started his role at the global technology firm in February, which provides payment software to companies such as Deliveroo, ASOS and Crowdfunder.

Google UK & Ireland has hired Jennifer Ogunleye to lead the company’s B2B communications, with a central focus on Google Search and YouTube Advertising. Jennifer joins Google from KPMG where she led PR activity in the TMT, transport, fraud and sports advisory sectors.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has appointed Alex Kaufman as their new Communications Director. Alex previously served as Communications Director at Crossrail and will bring broad public affairs, media relations and stakeholder engagement expertise to her new position.

Simon Enright has been hired as Communications Secretary for The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, starting in May. Simon previously worked as an Editor at the BBC before becoming Director of Communications for NHS England and NHS Improvement, where he has led the institution’s communications activities for the last seven years.

Ella Mason, formerly Head of External Affairs at Danone, has been made Director of Corporate Affairs and Business Purpose at Tate & Lyle Sugars. Ella started her new role in March and will play a key role in leading Tate & Lyle’s sustainability programme.

It has been announced that Josh Hardie will become Head of UK Public Affairs at Airbus in June, following a brief period as Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at GoCo Group. Josh, who was previously Deputy Director General at CBI, brings extensive government affairs experience to the role and will work closely with the Airbus senior leadership team to lead UK government and institutional relations.

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