LONDON—Gumtree.com, one of the UK’s leading classifieds websites, has named Elijah Lawal as PR manager, responsible for external and internal communications, as well as supporting the company’s business strategy. He previously worked at Inferno and Bite Communications, where he worked on clients such as Microsoft, Nokia, Sony and AMD. Most recently, Lawal was at Racepoint Global, where he worked on a variety of campaigns for Intelligent Energy, Lumesse, Warrior Football and 7digital.

LONDON—Macmillan Science & Education has appointed Atomic as its PR agency of record for the UK to highlight the role it is playing in disrupting the worlds of science and education publishing through technological innovation and the creation of software solutions. The initial brief focuses on Digital Science, an international technology division within Macmillan Science & Education that exists to support scientific researchers in accelerating the pace of innovation and discovery.

LONDON—Hotwire’s financial technology practice has expanded into the online currency and payments sector, building on its work with The Currency Cloud and taking on several new clients, including WorldRemit, Kantox and CurrencyTransfer.com.

LONDON—Octopus Group has appointed Laura Slade to its board of directors. Slade, who joined Octopus three years ago to head its client services team, will take on the role of client operations director, reporting to CEO Sandy Purewal. She was previously a board director at The Whiteoaks Consultancy, where she held the position of client services director.

LONDON—Instinctif Partners has been appointed to advise the UK office of Aurelius Group, the listed, mid-market pan-European investor focused on value creation through operational improvement. The Aurelius team at Instinctif Partners includes managing partner of the capital markets practice Mike Davies.

LONDON—Avondale, one of the largest and longest established specialist business sales advisors in the UK, has today appointed Jargon PR as its retained public relations agency to run a UK media relations campaign.  Jargon PR will seek to strengthen Avondale’s position as a leader in the mergers and acquisitions market.

LONDON—D-Media, a leading digital point of sale specialist for the licensed on-trade, has appointed Publicasity to handle its PR. Publicasity has been appointed to handle D-Media’s formal launch to the industry and ongoing communications including management of its social media communities.

LONDON—Encap Security, a dedicated software-based, banking-grade authentication provider, has selected CCgroup to handle its business-to-business technology PR across Europe. CCgroup is tasked with driving awareness of Encap Security’s unique technology, building the brand and supporting sales. In particular, CCgroup will develop Encap’s market positioning and messaging to clearly articulate the company’s disruptive potential in a crowded market.