PARIS—Heather Knox, most recently senior director of communications for Microsoft, has joined Groupe Renault as vice president of external relations. She will lead corporate, product, and social and digital communications teams for Groupe Renault, and as part of the Renault-Nissan alliance.

Knox most recently spent two years with Microsoft at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters and before that spent three years as regional director of communications for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, based in Paris. She has an earlier five year stint with the software giant in corporate communications in Redmond.

Earlier in her career, she was director of strategic marketing for software company WatchMark Comnitel (now part of IBM) and director of communications for Infowave.