In-house corporate affairs news, June 2023

The last three months have been busy, not least given all the shorter working weeks and bank holidays. No one felt this more closely than Mark Arena, who left his role as Director of Communications at the Church of England shortly after King Charles’s Coronation, to join the Open Society Foundations as their new Global Director of Communications.

From one global non-profit to another, Hannah Cockburn-Logie left the Royal Household and her role as Private Secretary to Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, joining the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as their Deputy Director for Communications. Hannah previously spent over 15 years at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a variety of roles.

Mike Kelly also changed roles in April 2023 joining Sage as their Corporate Affairs Director, UKIA. Before this new role, Mike spent ten years as the External Affairs Director at Bacardi where he was responsible for corporate communications, government affairs and external campaigns.

May 2023 proved to be a popular month for role changes, one of these was Ben Wilson who has joined Sports England, the non-departmental public body focused on building the foundations of community sport systems. He is their new Executive Director of Digital, Marketing and Communications after spending three years at the Association of British Insurers as Director of Communications, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability.

Another May 2023 move saw Emma Reynolds join Mars’ Food and Nutrition division as their new Global Vice President for Corporate Affairs after almost six years at Vodafone as the Communications, Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs Director.

In June 2023, Amanda Glover left Marks and Spencer after 13 years as their Head of External Communications. She has joined NatWest Group as their Director of Group Media and Digital Communications.

A recent move saw Mike Ward exit his contract role with Syngenta Group in June 2023 and join IHG Hotels & Resorts as the Director of Global External Corporate Communications. Mike had previously worked at Ferguson plc and TUI Group.

Birchwood Knight congratulates everyone on their career moves.  We help CEOs to hire their corporate affairs leaders, and we help corporate affairs directors to hire their direct reports.

If you are considering a career move or hiring for your team, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to get in touch.