LONDON—MHP Communications, the public relations and public affairs firm formed two years ago by the merger of Mandate, Penrose Financial and Hogarth, has appointed industry veteran Mark Cater as managing director. Cater will join MHP in January 2012, and will be based in the firm’s London headquarters office.

Cater was most recently president at Cohn & Wolfe in New York where he worked with several of agency’s global corporate and healthcare clients and was also responsible for building worldwide business in partnership with Cohn & Wolfe offices and affiliates around the world. Prior to his global role, Cater led key clients for the European region across a range of industries, following the firm’s 2008 merger with GCI Group.

Cater has also held CEO roles for Chamberlain and GCI London and has extensive healthcare expertise as partner and director of global healthcare for Ketchum, and at Edelman.

At MHP Cater will take a leading role in the developing and delivering communications programs and campaigns for the company’s clients, and according to MHP chief executive Sacha Deshmukh will “play a key role in the next stage in the expansion of MHP.”

MHP now has 160 staff, based in offices in London, Brussels, Edinburgh and Washington DC.