WASHINGTON, DC—Hill+Knowlton Strategies has appointed Howard Opinsky executive vice president and general manager of its Washington, DC, office. Opinsky will focus on driving growth, enhancing client service and managing business operations for the office.

Opinsky is a veteran communications strategist and spokesperson who was most recently managing director of global corporate communications at JPMorgan Chase & Co, where he led a team responsible for communicating the firm’s overall corporate performance, operations and corporate responsibility activities, along with conducting public affairs work to address legislative and regulatory issues.

Prior to joining JPMorgan, Opinsky spent ten years as an executive vice president at Weber Shandwick where he led public affairs and corporate work for the firm’s Powell Tate operation. His clients have included Bank of America, Cisco Systems, Mattel, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Siemens, the US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and the governments of the United States and Colombia.

In addition to his corporate work, Opinsky served for more than a decade as a political communications strategist and spokesman for local, state and national political campaigns. He served as national press secretary for US Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) 2000 presidential campaign, a communication strategist at the National Senatorial Campaign Committee, and a media strategist and campaign operative for US Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and former US Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX).

AUSTIN—Hill+Knowlton Strategies has also added George Shelton to the firm’s Austin office as senior vice president leading the reputation management and corporate practice. Shelton will focus on reputation development, corporate social responsibility, messaging and targeted media outreach.

He comes to H+K Strategies from Walmart where he served as the senior director for insights, advocacy and outreach, working on the development and management of a nationwide reputation advertising campaign, issues management, message testing, and developing online and traditional grassroots engagement programs.