NEW YORK—Nathaniel Brown is joining News Corp. as vice president of corporate affairs and communications. Brown will be based in New York and replaces Jack Horner, who will join Warner Bros. in a senior publicity job in its motion picture unit. Brown comes to News Corp. from Viacom, where he ran corporate communications for MTV. Prior to MTV, he ran corporate communications at XM Radio, where he oversaw communications for the Sirius/XM merger. He will report to Julie Henderson, chief communications officer.

BETHESDA, MD—Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development of drugs based on prostones, has named Silvia Taylor as senior vice president of investor relations, public relations, and corporate communications, reporting to Cary Claiborne, CFO. Taylor joins Sucampo from MedImmune where she held positions of increasing responsibility, including senior director of marketing, global influenza franchise.

SAN FRANCISCO—Threshold Pharmaceuticals has appointed Laura Hansen as senior director, corporate communications, responsible for heading investor and public relations functions. Hansen most recently served as director, corporate communications at FibroGen, a privately held biotechnology company. Prior to that, she was director, corporate communications and investor relations at Corvas International. She began her career at Susan E. Atkins + Associates (acquired by Porter Novelli).

PHILADELPHIA—Franklin Square Capital Partners has named Mike Gerber as senior vice president of public affairs, strategy and product administration. He will lead Franklin Square's government and regulatory affairs group. Gerber currently serves as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and as a trustee of Pennsylvania's State Employees' Retirement System, but is stepping down from both posts this November.