WHITE PLAINS, NY—Amy Palladino has been named senior director of corporate communications by Heineken USA, responsible for corporate communications, consumer marketing engagements and special projects for corporate and brand public relations, employee and distributor engagement, consumer response, and crisis communications. Palladino reports to Tara Rush, SVP and chief corporate relations officer, and joins the Heineken USA management team. She joins from Emanate, where she most recently served as director in the New York office.

SAN DIEGO—Jessie Knight, executive vice president of external affairs for Sempra Energy and chairman of Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric, will retire November 1.  Steven Davis, currently president and chief operating officer of SDG&E, has been elected to succeed Knight as executive vice president of external affairs and corporate strategy for Sempra Energy. He was Sempra Energy's vice president of investor relations and corporate communications and, from 2006 to 2010.

LOS ANGELES—Former Yahoo CMO Kathy Savitt has been named president of digital media at STX Entertainment, where she will be president of digital media, responsible for global digital content strategy. Savitt previously held marketing and communications positions with American Eagle Outfitters and Amazon.com and headed Seattle operations for MWW.

NORTHBROOK, IL—Astellas Pharma has named Jamie McGarvey as senior manager, employee communications, within the corporate affairs department. She will report to Jennifer Saputo, associate director of employee communications. Most recently, McGarvey served as communications lead for global process and systems implementation programs at Baxter International. She has also worked in internal and external communications roles at US Cellular Corporation and Swedish Covenant Hospital.

SANTA MONICA, CA—Skydance, a diversified media company, has named Shannon Olivas (pictured) as senior vice president of corporate communications, a newly created position responsible for overseeing domestic and international public relations efforts on behalf of Skydance Media and its properties. Before joining Skydance, Olivas served as vice president of corporate communications for The Honest Company, prior to which she spent seven years in corporate communications and investor relations at DreamWorks Animation.

SPARKS, NV—Electronics and aviation company Sierra Nevada Corporation has hired Brooke Salkoff as corporate director of communications. Most recently, Salkoff, who reported for NBC News for more than a decade using her maiden name, Brooke Hart, served as venture partner for Crystal Tech Fund, and also was senior communications officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts.