ST. PAUL, August 8—Northwest Airlines is realigning its communications and branding operations and combining them under the leadership Mary Carroll Linder, who joined the company in January as senior vice president of corporate communications. Linder’s new title will be senior vice president of corporate and brand communications and she will be responsible for a broad range of functions, including advertising, community relations, corporate relations, internal communications, media relations, sponsorships, and visual and on-board services.
 
“Clear and consistent communications about Northwest—what we are, where we are going, and what our brand stands for—is absolutely critical to our success in informing our customers, employees, shareholders, and partners about the changes underway at Northwest Airlines,” says NWA chief executive Richard Anderson.
 
Linder says Anderson and president Doug Steenland have made communicating the airline’s new strategic direction a priority. “The new function will allow us to combine efforts to better communicate how Northwest is striving to become the airline of choice for customers and employees alike,” she adds
 
Previously, Linder was senior vice president for global communications at The Estee Lauder Companies. Before joining Estee Lauder in 1996, she was based in London as the senior communications officer at Grand Metropolitan.