NEW YORK—MSLGroup North America has strengthened its brand and talent practice—focused on employee engagement—with the appointment of Brian Burgess as practice director for North America and addition of Andreau Blanchard from Mercer as a vice president and specialist in organizational communication and change.

Burgess will report to Shellie Winkler, MSL North America health and corporate practice director. Blanchard reports to Burgess.

Burgess joined MSL Atlanta in 2004 and transferred to MSL New York in 2008 to launch brand and talent at the agency’s flagship office, working across the disciplines of employee engagement, internal communications and organizational change management.

Before joining MSL, he directed internal communications and corporate branding at AGL Resources, an Atlanta-based energy company.

Blanchard joins MSL from Mercer, where he was a principal in the firm’s workforce communication and change business, advising clients including Verizon, Hearst, Pfizer, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Lockheed Martin, on strategic communication and employee engagement. Prior to Mercer, he worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ global human resource solutions consulting practice.