NEW YORK—Ketchum has promoted senior vice president Marc Drechsler to global head of financial communications. Based in New York, Drechsler will be responsible for the growth of the practice, which offers services including financial transaction communications, issues and crisis management, litigation communications, change management, corporate positioning, analyst and investor relations. Prior to joining Ketchum’s New York office, Drechsler was a founding partner of Ketchum Pleon Financial, and earlier spent seven years at Citigate Dewe Rogerson in Germany and four years with Commerzbank AG in New York.

CHICAGO—Fleishman-Hillard International Communications has appointed Tammy Hawk as senior vice president and leader of the consumer marketing practice in its Chicago office. She reports to Maxine Winer, general manager of the Chicago team. Hawk joins Fleishman-Hillard from the Chicago office of Weber Shandwick, where she was executive vice president of consumer marketing. She has experience working with clients such as Mead Johnson, Motorola, Kraft, Unilever, Milk (the Got Milk? campaign) and McDonald’s.

NEW YORK—Finn Partners has appointed Ben Trounson as a partner in its consumer practice. Prior to joining Finn Partners, Trounson was a senior vice president at Hill & Knowlton, overseeing the agency’s consumer marketing practice in New York, leading key accounts such as Dos Equis and Target. Before Hill & Knowlton, he was a vice president, director of client service at Ketchum, representing brands such as Kodak and Bank of America.

SOUTH PASADENA, CA—Hispanic public relations agency VPE has expanded to the East Coast with the appointment of veteran PR professional Veronica Rodriguez as account director in New York City. Rodriguez has previously worked with the Vidal Partnership and Vox Collective and has also overseen corporate PR initiatives in previous positions at Universal Motown Music Group and Atari.

WASHINGTON, DC—Tracy Shea has joined the New York office of Widmeyer Communications as a vice president in the firm’s pre-K-12 Education practice. Shea will help lead Widmeyer’s work for New York-based clients including Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Foundation for Newark’s Future, and The McGraw-Hill Companies. She is an EMMY award winning producer and journalist working with media outlets including Liberty Media, Turner Broadcasting and PBS. Recently, she served as executive producer on a series of National Geographic Expedition sponsored trips to destinations such as Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Galapagos and Antarctica.